Fifty Shades of Tsume
by Fish and Chipz
Summary: Gehl's foster sister seeks revenge on Tsume, the one she believes who killed him. However, stalking the pack relentlessly means she gets tied up in difficult affairs, including…falling in love? How can a human and a wolf go together anyway? Tsume x OC
1. Chapter 1

You must be thinking "how can a human and a wolf fall in love?" but before you jump to any conclusions about zoophilia and/or throw your arms up in the air in frustration and go "UNGHHH Not another OC fanfic!", I would just like to say:

Yes, this is an OC fic. The OC is human (because I didn't want to write about a she-wolf), and Tsume is paired with this particular non-wolf human OC.

I don't know if I should really call this story _Fifty Shades of Tsume_, but I thought heck yeah whatever because its actually quite a nice title hehe. Besides, this fic was either called that or 'Not Another Tsume Fanfic!' –facepalm-

Anyway, I watched Wolf's Rain ages ago and I liked Kiba first before I liked Tsume but he really grew on me, and Kiba has Cheza - whereas Tsume has no-one (he died alone. ALONEEEEE). The drive to write Tsume OC fic grew stronger when I actually realised Tsume's VA (a certain Mr Freeman) also voices another favourite anime character of mine (coughAlucardcough), so I am dedicating this fanfic to Tsume, because Tsume rocks.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Wolf's Rain.

* * *

…

**Paradise **

...

* * *

A large, dark gray wolf lies unmoving in the snow.

A girl sits by its side, grieving. Heavy and painful sobs erupt from her chest uncontrollably. The wolf's fur is covered with a mixture of tears and blood. The sorrow is devastating; she feels cut in two. She feels empty and incomplete. No matter how much she moans and wails, it is no use. It will not change anything.

Tsume is dead. She is alone.

Without Tsume, she realises she has nothing. She never really did have anything, until he came along.

And now the will to live, the will to keep going, has disappeared from her heart.

Using the back of one bloodstained hand, she wipes at the corner of her eyes, while her other hand clutches at her chest where her clothes are torn, indicating a gaping wound. Her flesh and skin has been ripped apart in a gruesome fashion. Her body trembles as she sits slumped beside him.

Kiba left a long time ago.

She wonders if he has found Paradise yet, and if he did, it felt as though it was all in vain. If he had not found Paradise, the result was still the same. Her fist clenches, her fingers scraping up snow. Fury overcomes grief, and with a fistful of snow, she throws it into the empty space. Even though humans weren't allowed into Paradise, she wanted to see Tsume. She would do anything to see him again, even if it meant dying a thousand painful deaths over and over again.

"Let me in... Let me in,_ please_..." She whispers, her frail voice resonating faintly.

The blizzard worsens. She can't see anything. It's getting colder and colder. Heavy globs of snow assault her from all possible directions. Her vision blurs, and her eyelids droop. Her body is becoming weaker and weaker as each second passes. She can't move her arms or legs. Nevertheless, she continues her chant silently, mentally.

_Let me in...let me in...let me in..._

Trying to stay awake as the bitter freeze begins to consume her, she thinks about Tsume. She thinks back to how they met. She thinks about when she had started to like him, and how she was never sure he really liked her back until now...

Cold and exhausted, she lowers herself down to rest beside the wolf, and reaches out for one limp furry paw, holding it in her own hand. Feeling the weight of his paw in her hand, she then gives it an affectionate, gentle squeeze. She had never really seen his wolf form so close before, but now she knew. He was majestic and beautiful...

She shuts her eyes, and takes one last breath.

_Let me in, please... __I just want to see him again..._

**...**

**A few months ago**

**...**

She wondered if the world had always been like this: gray, bland, dull and downright dangerous.

The population was decreasing. There was a massive gap between the rich and poor, the educated and the illiterate. Disease and famine plagued the landscape. People had lost hope. There was no faith. Despair hung in the corner of everyone's mind. Sadness loomed in the horizon. Only death could bring peace and joy.

Yet, in the little booklet about 'Paradise' she got for free from one of those street charity workers, the colorful picture on the cover made the world look like such a happy place…

"Jia!"

She ignored the voice calling for her, focusing on the book. Surely the world would get better, and not worse?

"_Ji –_ GAYNA!"

Immediately, she looked away from the book to see an old man charging towards her in the hallway with his walking stick rhythmically sounding off the floorboards.

"_GAYNAAAAAA!_"

She winced in embarrassment at the use of her actual name, "Alright, I heard you. You can stop yelling."

"Gaynaaaa!" He yelled again anyway as he stopped shortly in front of her, before he entered a vicious coughing fit. She immediately stood back up and began patting his back and he gradually stopped choking and spluttering before croaking out, "Why are you still here? You were supposed to get Gehl five minutes ago."

"Sorry, dad. I was getting ready and found this – " She proceeded to show him the book.

"_Paradise_?" Dad raised a hairy grey eyebrow in disdain as soon as he caught sight of the cover, "What is that? Get rid of it. It's garbage. Paradise…what a load of bull."

But the little book was the most exciting and colorful possession Jia ever had in her whole existence. "Is it true? Does Paradise exist?"

"Paradise?" The old man scoffed under his breath, "No, of course not, it's just an old legend. Don't believe in that dosh, Jia. It's for wolves only anyway."

"Wolves? Why wolves?"

"How should I know? I'm not a wolf. Do I look like a wolf to you?" Dad grunted out, before he began rubbing at the bottom of his nose, "Where did you get that anyway?"

"A charity worker handed me it when I was in the feed shop earlier on." She replied, "Don't worry, it was free."

"How many times do I need to tell you? Stop accepting things from random strangers. You never know what they're up to!"

"It's okay, they were legit, and they didn't ask me for money anyway."

"Hmph. You were lucky this time; if someone else were to offer things to you, they'll demand you give them money. Now hurry up and get that blasted kid. Oh, I want you to go to the market too."

She nodded as he handed her a small shopping list which she tucked away into her tattered pocket of her dull brown parka. "Got it."

Dad rummaged around his pockets as she sidestepped from him and out of her room, "You need some cash?"

"Nope. The money I got from the mill yesterday should cover it."

"Good, good, very good. Take the van. Drive carefully, she can't take much more I'm afraid..."

She left the house quickly after reassuring her dad, and with the keys to dad's van in hand; she hopped inside the vehicle, pulled the seatbelt over herself and started the engine before turning her head round to reverse.

Jia was 19 years old.

Her real name was _Gayna_ but she thought it was a terribly embarrassing name and had absolutely NO IDEA what was going through her dad's mind when he named her. After years of relentless bullying from kids during her younger years who kept taunting her that she was...well, _gay_, she unofficially shortened her name to Jia, or Gia (to preserve the 'G' sound in the family name). She lived under the care of an elderly man named _Ged_, a veteran guard from Black City who found her abandoned in a junkyard, kicking and screaming in a blanket, when she was a baby. They lived in a small ranch-like farm on the outskirts of Freeze City, preferring to live a quiet life away from the factories, scrapheaps and slums. However, the long distance meant it was harder getting supplies and the small family had to be self-sufficient. Jia found herself learning valuable survival skills, such as how to cook, sew, chop wood, grow and tend to produce, and how to fix all sorts of equipment and machinery.

Singing along casually (and badly) to the static, crackling music blaring from the half-broken radio, she drove the van into the city which took roughly thirty five minutes and eventually came to a stop outside a small derelict building near the town square where children could be seen pouring out of the front door. Gehl's school. Jia sighed a breath of relief inwardly; she was just in time. She got out of the van and waited by the door, watching the throng of kids gradually lessen until she caught the familiar sight of wild red hair in the distance.

She waved enthusiastically, and the boy immediately tensed up as soon as he spotted her. He clutched his bag a little tighter to himself, before he began to shuffle towards her slowly, his head low.

"Gehl, what's wrong?" Jia asked as soon as he had waddled up to her, "Are you not feeling well?"

"…Why are you here?" came his mumbled response. "I thought I told you not to come pick me up from school anymore."

"I always pick you up from school."

"You don't have to."

"Gehl, it's unsafe going home by yourself. The streets are dangerous. They're full of thieves, thugs and – "

The boy whipped his head up to the tall girl angrily, "Jia! I'm not a kid anymore! Just let me do what I want, okay?"

"You're twelve years old!" Jia retorted with a hand on her hip, "Look, we're not going to have this conversation again. Hop in the van. Let's go."

"Stop acting like you're in charge of me. That's Ged's job." Gehl replied, as Jia opened the door to the driver's seat.

"Don't talk about dad like that."

"He's not our real dad."

Jia hesitated. "…Let's go. Dad wants me to go to the market, and I think the van's about to run out of gas."

"Yeah, yeah, sure…"

Jia returned to the front seat of the van and quickly pulled the seatbelt over herself while Gehl piled into the passenger seat. "Put your seatbelt on."

"Alright, alright, fine…" The boy hastily pulled the elastic strip from its holster and over himself, then clipped it into the awaiting buckle. "Happy now?"

She smiled at him then re-started the engine. "Alright, let's go."

The journey to the market was silent. Gehl was Jia's little brother although they were not blood related. Like Jia, Gehl too was found by Ged one day. But Jia and Gehl had always gotten along fine, aside from the sibling squabbles on certain occasions. Recently though, Gehl had been acting strange. He appeared angry and emotionally distant, and neither Jia or Ged could reach out to him. At the mere age of twelve, Gehl had heard too many stories from his classmates at school and was quickly embedded with the ridiculous desire to go see the rest of the world and do things no twelve year old really should. Jia and Ged had a hard time restraining him from exploring. The boy was too young, too naïve. It was a ticket to an early grave to leave the safety of the City and go travelling.

"Sooo…." Jia began cheerfully, drumming her fingers on the wheel as she steered through the somewhat busy street, "How was school?"

"Boring."

She sighed at his unenthusiastic reply, "You know, I never got the chance to go to school."

"Then why don't you take my place?"

"Great, then you can take my place and chop firewood all day and work at the Kingsley mill. How's that?"

With another one of Gehls' mumbled, frustrated responses, the conversation gradually simmered into an uncomfortable silence. As soon as they arrived in the market, she stopped the van again and slid out. Gehl followed, kicking away at a stone in his path.

Jia flipped open the shopping list without further ado and stalked off towards the grocery store while Gehl trailed after her, "Alrighty, let's see what we have here…hmm…Eggs! That's what we need…"

On the way, they passed a small clothes shop and Jia immediately halted in her tracks and pressed her nose against the window. "Oooh, what a pretty dress." She cooed, while Gehl wrinkled his nose in disgust. "What's with that look?"

He looked at her from head to toe, then crossed his arms, "It's a horrible dress. It's pink and frilly. No-one wears stuff like that here. You'll just stick out like a sore thumb. And it'll get dirty. You chop wood all day and go to work, it won't last long." He remarked. Besides, he'd never seen his sister wear a dress before. No, all he seen her wear were mouldy sweaters, sweatpants, that huge parka, the ugly brown beanie hat and those black hiking boots. Pink frilly dresses didn't seem to fit her image.

"No, silly, it's a dress for going out and-and for parties and dances." Jia replied giddily.

"We don't get invited to anything."

"It's still nice." She murmured, and for a moment, Gehl thought he saw stars in her eyes. "...I've never had anything nice before...I wonder how much it costs..."

They swerved their eyes down to the price label and in unison, the two gasped loudly in astonishment as soon as they received an eyeful of the lump figure "WHAT? Are they crazy? Who can afford that? Are they trying to rob us?!" Jia screeched, before she grabbed Gehl's arm and dragged him away and onto the path of the grocery store, "We're outta here!"

After completing their brief shopping trip, Jia ticked off the items on the list as she sauntered towards the direction of their parked van. "Good, we got everything." When she was met with silence, she looked up and realised Gehl was not following her. "Gehl?"

Turning back round, she saw the boy suddenly standing with a large crowd of men. He was talking to them. Jia stared; she disliked stereotyping but the men looked shady and gaudy. They were surrounding Gehl. He seemed to be talking to them as though they were casual acquaintances.

Out of all the men in the group, the one who was dark-skinned with the silver hair was the most attractive. He stood furthest away from the group, with his arms crossed over his chest. He was leaning against the wall, seemingly stuck in thought. He wore sunglasses – which she thought was strange as Freeze City was not exactly known for its remarkably sunny weather – and he also wore tight-fitting black leather pants and a matching jacket with ripped seams at the shoulders. It also showed his flat stomach and she wondered how anyone could wear something so revealing and thin in this freezing, chilly weather. The man clearly must be out of his mind.

And suddenly, the man turned his head to her direction.

Although his eyes were covered by those sunglasses of his, Jia stiffened up immediately, and she quickly looked away. Ack! Had she been caught staring? How embarrassing! When she mustered the courage to stare back, she noticed the man was still gazing steadily at her direction.

Jia stopped ogling and swallowed down the lump in her throat; she began walking over, and Gehl, noticing her incoming presence, quickly left the group who then began to saunter away down one of the alleyways. The olive-skinned man pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against and began to leave with the rest of the group, casually sidling away with his hands in his pockets.

Phew. Jia let her gut come loose and stopped beside Gehl, nudging him in process. "Who were those people?"

"Uh…" Gehl began to stammer and sweat slightly, "Just a couple of friends."

"Those men are your friends?"

"U-Uh, w-well, they're not really…friends, just…people I know from school. T-they're in big school, you know…a school for…big kids. Uh…you know, college. Freeze City College."

Jia cocked her head to the side. Freeze City College was a well-known institution which Jia had wished to attend but alas had no rightful qualifications (or the money) to afford lessons there, "How the heck did you meet college kids? And what were they doing here? These are the slums! And what do they want with you?"

Gehl was stammering even more furiously now, "They came to class one day to give this talk about…you know, college stuff. I-I was just saying hi."

"Oh, okay, but they look a bit shady to be college kids. I don't want you talking to them." Jia remarked as she rubbed at the bottom of her chin.

"Stop telling me what to do all the time!" Gehl barked. "Stop worrying about me, Jia, they're alright. They hang around here. They're safe, and they're not bad people. Stop thinking all people are bad. Are we going home or what?"

"Yeah. Uh... who was the tall, dark and handsome one wearing sunglasses?"

"Huh? You mean Tsume?"

"Sue-may? Isn't that a girl's name…?"

Gehl laughed, which was nice for a change because the boy rarely smiled these days, "It's _Tsume_. T-S-U-M-E." He corrected her, but she appeared clueless. He reminded himself his older sister didn't exactly have the privilege of going to school and learning how to read or write properly. "What about him, Jia?"

She looked up at the alleyway, watching the tall man's retreating back. "…Nothing. Come on, let's go, it's getting late..."

…

Finally, after a long day of work, it was dinnertime.

The small TV was switched off as Ged limped over to the small foldable table which they had propped up in the middle of the lounge, manoeuvring carefully to avoid the junk that was lying around the floor, and he put down the bowl of hot, simmered cabbage, while Jia followed after, placing down a large plate of boiled potatoes. Ged returned to the kitchen while Gehl stared at the two bowls and looked back up at Jia.

"Is this all we're having?" He asked morosely, pointing at the steaming bowls.

"You don't sound too happy," Jia clasped her hands together and grinned, "You know, we have quite the feast. Er-hem, presenting to you, our marvellous dinner – tada! We have cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beetroot, a yam, spam...a can of baked beans, er, this weird melon thingy I found in the fields the other day...and yesterday's gruel."

"Eww."

"Hey, what's with that response? It's great. Mmm, gruel, I just can't get enough of dad's homemade gruel. Mm, yum yum yum. Yummy in my tummy. What will we do without gruel, huh?" Jia dunked a rusting spoon inside and lifted it up, making some of the squishy, lumpy brown mixture spill off the rounded edge and back into the bowl. She put it into her mouth with a thin-lipped, watery smile while Gehl shuddered. "Mmm...you can just taste its gruelly-yummyness."

She gave him a thumbs-up but in reality, she really wanted to spit it out. Gehl looked away from the food on the dinner table, deterred, "Stop doing that. I'm not five years old." And immediately, Jia dropped her smile. "Aren't you tired of eating food like this?" He added.

She swallowed down her spoonful of gruel and tried not to shudder as it slid down her throat, "What do you mean?"

"I'm sick and tired of eating nothing but bread and potatoes all the time."

"Then what will we eat?"

"I don't know, how about...lobster? Or-or fish?"

Jia laughed, "Gehl. We can't afford fish or lobster or crabs or any kind of seafood. The sea is miles away from Freeze City. It's an imported luxury for the rich, like the Nobles. They can eat and drink anything they want because they have a lot of money."

"Well, that's what I mean." Gehl said irately, "I don't want to be poor anymore."

Jia looked down uncomfortably. "We're just a bit short of money, that's all. Everyone's poor."

"No, they're not. How come I see other people and they have nice things? I mean, you work two jobs and dad sells stuff he finds in the junkyard but we still can't afford - "

"Because those kinds of people you see _steal_!" Jia suddenly yelled back, "They rob people on the streets. They steal from supply trains. They raid people's homes. We don't. We don't ever steal! We're not thieves! And we don't need to get through by - "

"What's going on here?" interrupted a voice. It was Ged. He was making his way out of the kitchen towards the table with spoons and forks in hand, along with three bowls, which he passed to Gehl, who in turn passed a set to Jia silently. "I heard yelling. Are you two fighting with each other again?"

"...N-no, dad. Let's eat..."

"So how was work, Jia?" Ged asked, as everyone began picking vegetables into their bowls. Jia merely replied with a light shrug. She had picked up three potatoes and four clumps of cabbage. Gehl only had picked two of each. Ged cleared his throat, sensing some kind of animosity between the siblings, "Good. And how was school, Gehl?"

"It was okay."

As awkward dinnertime conversations continued, Jia found herself thinking back towards the tall, tan male she saw in the marketplace today. She wondered who he was. His name was Tsume. She wondered how old he was. She wondered where he came from, and what kind of person he was. As soon as she realised what she doing, she shook her head to clear such thoughts. What was going on? Why was she thinking about him? It was just…the man was…well, there was something…strange about him. He gave her an odd feeling, not particularly a good one, either.

"I'm finished." Gehl announced, and Ged looked up. Jia snapped out of her musings and turned to her little brother.

"Gehl, you've eaten so little." She pointed out.

"I'm fine. I'm not hungry."

Dad frowned, "Gehl, it's not whether you're hungry or not. You eat as much as you can."

"But if I eat any more, there won't be enough for you guys."

"Eat up, you're all skin and bones." Jia said with a sigh before she quickly plucked two fat potatoes from her own bowl and dumped it into Gehl's. "Here. Take mine."

"I never asked for yours."

"Just take it. You're still growing. You need it. I'll be fine. We'll be fine."

Gehl stared silently at his family, then proceeded to eat.

…

That night, Jia could not sleep.

She was uncomfortable, having to sleep in her jacket to tackle the chilly night because the halogen heater was broken; she reminded herself this was a good way to avoid racking up high electricity bills anyway. She stared up blankly at the ceiling of her tiny room. It was not even a room she could call her own. They had run out of space in the lounge and various objects and other broken, unwanted appliances that were salvaged from the junkyard were shoved into her room to be refurbished and sold at the marketplace whenever. Aside from those taking up much space, there was only enough legroom for a bed and a box for her to put her own possessions in. The box only contained a torch, a lamp, a few candles (for emergencies), two old sweaters and a pair of old boots for work. Then there was that colourful booklet about Paradise which she kept underneath her things incase dad would see.

As her stomach rumbled uncomfortably, she moved to sit up and frowned. The kitchen should still have some leftovers…She whipped off the covers and rolled off her bed and out of her room, careful not to step on the many objects littering her floor. Once she left her room, she waddled towards the direction of the kitchen. On the way, she passed Gehl's bedroom and decided to stop and look inside, just to check up on him as she usually did at night. To her surprise, his bed was empty.

"Gehl?!"

She checked the rest of his room. There was no sign of him. Panicking, she was about to run out of the room to alert Ged about Gehl's missing presence until she heard tyres screeching outside. She ran to his window and pulled away the blinds just in time to see a large humvee with an open top screeching away on its rusty tyres, kicking up dust in its wake. Inside the humvee sat a large group of men carrying guns. Her eyes widened as soon as she realised it was the same group of men she had seen Gehl talking to earlier on, as she recognised the tall, dark skinned man named Tsume at the very front of the humvee. What were they doing here?

"Gehl!" She cried, when she spotted a familiar boy squashed between two of the big burly men.

Alarm bells were ringing in her head as she peeled herself off the window, having seen enough. The humvee was leaving quickly; she sprinted out of Gehl's room and into the lounge, grabbing the van keys off the table before flinging open the front door with much force that she almost ripped it off its hinges.

"Wait!" She was too late; the humvee was gone, disappearing into nighttime darkness. Jia hurried to the van and stabbed the keys inside the slot and twisted. Nothing happened, except from a loud jittering noise from the vehicle. "Come on, come on, come on!" She yelled, "Don't stall on me now!"

When the van finally roared into ignition, she reversed carelessly out of the garage, crashing into the pile of firewood she'd chopped up and left in the yard, before steering the van to follow the path of the humvee although she could no longer see it. Ged had warned that the van could not handle much, yet Jia slammed her foot on the gas pedal. She tugged on the light toggle, and the van's headlights flickered on lazily, highlighting the humvee tracks in front. Her heart was beating furiously as she pursued the tracks as the humvee was long gone by now.

Where could Gehl have gone? Following the humvee tyre tracks in the ground, she drove all the way to the outskirts of Freeze City, finally coming to a stop when she saw the railway tracks ahead. She stopped the van and stepped out. The humvee tracks seemed to have stopped.

Glancing around, Jia rushed back to the boot of the van and grabbed a flashlight. She had to smack it a few times to get it to work, before shining the faint light on the ground. She carefully crossed the train tracks to see more humvee tracks on the other side, leading back to Freeze City.

Jia returned to the car and steered it over the tracks, bouncing in her seat as she forced the van over the bumpy tracks. As soon as she had crossed the other side, she had the van rushing over the dark road and towards the direction of the city. Before she could pull over, there was a loud 'bang!' and smoke could be seen emitting from the bonnet. Graoning, she climbed out of the driver's seat to inspect but then she could see the outline of the humvee (which was now discarded) a mere feet away, accompanied with rapid gunfire coming from the train station.

_Gehl. _Her search led her to one of the energy plants near the station, the ones with those large beams sticking out of them that led to the sewer and city walls. She had to force her neck back as far as possible just to look up where she could see a helicopter whirring above.

It was then she saw him.

Gehl.

He was running across the magnificent steel beams, carrying something in his arms. He was being chased. From her spot, Jia yelled but he could not hear. He was too preoccupied at that moment to see her down below at ground level, staring and shouting hysterically. Bullets were ricocheting off the beams near his feet; he was running as fast as he could, but not as fast as his companion, who was much further ahead.

_How the hell did he even get up there?_ Her mind was screaming at her as she watched.

Suddenly, Gehl lost his footing and slipped. He must have screamed, but any sort of sound was incomprehensible compared to the gunfire and the angry yells and screams from the guards. Jia cried out, but to her relief, the dark-skinned man named Tsume was at his side immediately, and reached out for him with his hand.

But Gehl began to slip, and Jia screamed as she watched Gehl's body flailing in mid-air. He was falling.

And then he was dead.

* * *

I can't remember if the anime gave any backstory to Gehl. In here, he is actually a kid still at school who becomes secretly associated with thieves to prove himself as an adult and to avoid poverty in an apocalyptic world. I dunno...do you guys like it? Yes? No? Should I continue?


	2. Chapter 2

Whoohoo! Second chapter! There is more Tsume in this chapter Thanks for the reviews! At least there are some people reading!

**…**

**Revenge**

**…**

"_Gehl_!"

Jia woke up with a start.

She was sitting upright in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room. She clutched at the white sheets, inhaling the sterile smell, and caught sight of the IV pack hanging from a rack beside her. A hospital. She was in a hospital.

A quick glance outside the window told her it was still nighttime. What happened? She saw Gehl falling and then...and then her mind went blank. It went dark. She must have fainted. It would explain why her head hurt so much and why her jaw felt swollen. She placed a hand gingerly on her forehead to feel soft fabric and came to realise that they'd wrapped some bandages around the crown of her head. She was not alone in the room: Ged was sitting wordlessly by her side, his head low. In his hand was his hip flask, and he was smelled strongly of beer. Ged hadn't drunk alcohol for a long time until now. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot, which startled her as her dad had always been the tight-lipped, grumpy but solemn man, with the personality of a hard-boiled detective from those crime books he read. Yet he lifted his head and took one long look at her, and then his eyes strayed back to his lap dourly.

"...Dad?" She squeaked, when he sucked in a heavy breath.

"G-good, you're awake." came Ged's somewhat monotone but wobbly response. She could tell he was trying really hard to hold everything in but was failing miserably. Ged unscrewed the lid of his flask, his hand shaking, and he took a few swigs, then replaced the lid again, although she knew he'd just drink some more in a couple of seconds.

"Gehl is..." She began, although her voice was already beginning to break. The sentence trailed off into silence.

The old man murmured quietly, "The detective would like a few words with you."

"Detective?"

"Yeah."

When the door to her room opened, Jia and Ged looked up expectantly to see a man in a crisp white suit and hat, which he took off upon entry, revealing short blonde hair. He cleared his throat and quickly introduced himself, "Miss Gayna. My name's Hubb Lebowski. I'm the detective in charge of investigating the case regarding your foster brother. If it's not too much of a hassle, I'd like you to testify to what you witnessed tonight."

Suddenly, it all came back to her and Jia stilled, her throat going dry.

"_GEHL!"_

_Jia darted towards one of the rounded beams closest to her and ducked underneath, arriving into the empty factory yard. She glanced around helplessly, trying to locate Gehl's fallen body. She tried to pinpoint where exactly she had seen him fall and eventually found him a few yards away._

_She ran to him and threw herself down on the ground, on her knees. Her hands shook as she reached out for him. He was lying on his side, facing away from her. A large pool of blood surrounded him, along with the supplies she'd seen him carry, which were now strewn carelessly on the ground, broken and leaking. She was too afraid to turn him around, too scared to see the blood, to see the death scribbled on his face._

_No-one would survive a fall from that height._

_Amongst the heap of broken, stolen goods Gehl was carrying, she saw what appeared to be a can of tuna, peanut butter, a shiny hip flask and a crumpled dress - she instantly realised it was the same pink dress she saw in the shops earlier on: the one she had liked and wanted._

_A strangled noise came from the back of her throat, and Jia covered her mouth with her hands and shut her eyes, hot tears beginning to ooze from the corner of her closed lids._

_Gehl was dead._

Immediately, Jia began to climb out of bed, only for Ged to intercept her by holding an arm out, "Jia, what are you doing? Go back into bed, you need rest."

She shook her head vigorously, "I'm fine, dad. Gehl...He-he...that...that guy with the sunglasses..."

"Jia, calm down; you just woke up."

Realising it was an awkward time, Lebowski gave them a small, courteous bow and began to back out of the room, "It's alright, I can come back another time – "

"No, detective, I'll tell you everything I saw."

"Jia!"

"Dad, just let me do this." Jia averted her attention from her father and turned to face Lebowski sternly, "It was him. That guy with the sunglasses. He killed Gehl. I know what I saw. I'm sure."

Lebowski pulled out a small notepad from the breastpocket of his jacket and began writing down some notes with a small pen which he also retrieved from his pocket. "Guy with sunglasses? Could you describe him for me?"

She tried her best to describe the man, with Lebowski nodding and going 'uh-huh' a few times. When she was finished with the physical appearance description, she briefly remembered something else she knew about him. However, Jia scratched at her head, feeling as though something was slipping by her. Ah damn, what did Gehl say his name was again?

However, Lebowski was already moving on, since Jia had provided him with a rather detailed description. The murderer was tan, tall (maybe over six foot), wearing a black leather jacket with studs, ripped sleeves at the shoulders…matching dark pants…sunglasses…silver hair. How many men in Freeze City would look like _that?_ Arresting the guy would be a cinch at this rate. "And could you explain to me what were you doing on unauthorised grounds, Miss Gayna?"

While Ged worried, she gladly told Lebowski that she couldn't sleep and got up to get some food from the kitchen, only to see Gehl missing from his room. She heard a noise outside and saw the humvee, and saw Gehl inside. She decided to follow them only to arrive at Freeze City, where she saw Gehl running away on the beams before he fell. The man with sunglasses reached for him but Gehl still fell.

"Your little brother was found with stolen goods from one of the warehouses, Miss Gayna – "

"...It's Jia."

Lebowski quickly corrected himself, "Miss Jia. His fingerprints and DNA have been confirmed." Lebowski stated, as he noticed Jia's complexion becoming paler and paler. "According to some other eyewitnesses, your brother has been seen with the group of thieves we've been trying to arrest."

"I-I know how it looks, detective, but it's not true. Gehl's not a thief! He's only a kid!" Jia protested haplessly, while Ged sat slumped in his chair in disbelief, "Gehl wouldn't do such a thing! They...they must have forced him to take those stuff. We thought he was acting strange lately... he probably felt as though he couldn't tell us..."

Lebowski closed his notepad, having decided he'd heard enough for now. "That will do, Miss Jia. That will do."

"What's going to happen?"

"We're currently trying to track the whereabouts of the thieves. If we find anything else, we'll be in contact." He replied, before taking his leave. When the detective left, Jia glanced over at Ged, who stared back at her sullenly in return. What now? How could they return to normal life from here on? Jia had seen it in the news plenty of times…about families torn apart because of the death of a family member…now it was finally happening to her…

But Gehl was a good kid. He went to school. He had friends. He helped around the house. And here the police were saying that he was a thief. Jia refused to believe it. There was no way in hell he would be in league with a bunch of thieves. At first, Jia was mortified when she heard that the men Gehl had been seen talking to were actually petty thieves who were rumoured to lurk where that old, giant tree in the city was. It turned out they were also making a name for themselves in the city since they were always targeting freight trains and warehouses in the city.

No, she thought, how could this be? How could Gehl be associated with these kinds of people? Since Jia was taking this badly...how would her father fare off? He already had so many problems, and he was old. It was going to break his heart. The truth would kill him. Literally. Wiping away at the corner of her eyes again where tears were threatening to fall, Jia suddenly threw the blanket off her and slid out of bed. The urge to do something about her bleak situation consumed her.

Ged jumped out of his seat immediately as she stomped towards the door, "Jia! What are you doing?"

She didn't know.

All she knew was that suddenly, she was no longer sad, but _very _angry.

"Where are you going?" He stared after her as she proceeded to storm out of the hospital room they'd provided her with, before getting up to follow her.

Outside in the corridor, they could see Detective Lebowski a distance away at a vending machine mentally debating if he wanted a tea or a coffee. He didn't seem to have noticed Jia or Ged at all. Jia quickly turned the other way from the detective, and Ged hobbled after her as quickly as he could. She was saying, "I'm going."

Ged couldn't keep up with his bad leg, "Going where?"

"I'm going, dad!" She affirmed harshly, her eyebrows were drawn together tightly, "I'm going after him!"

"After who?"

"He's still out there, and I'm gonna stop him. He's the reason Gehl is _dead_."

They'd given her a room on the first floor, which was for the general public. Jia weaved through the crowd of coughing, sneezing and wheezing hobos and bums and towards the front door, exiting the hospital swiftly. As soon as she arrived at the car park, she spotted their van parked beside a small blue car; she stalked up to it quickly and opened the boot, digging through her dad's old attaché case to find his hunting knife which she slipped into her belt holster. Two guns were available to her: her dad's trusted shotgun and blunderbuss. She chose the shotgun, before digging her hand into a box of shells.

"Jia, no!" Ged was yelling, as he watched her run off with the gun in hand, loading two of the shotgun shells before cocking it, "JIA!"

She could hear dad calling after her, but she blotted out his cries. _This is for Gehl, this is all for Gehl,_ she thought, as she closed her eyes briefly before re-opening them. She swung the strap of the shotgun over her shoulder, before taking off into the direction of the slums.

She would find him.

She would find him, and she would kill him.

...

Meanwhile, in a gloomy section in the slums, Tsume sat alone.

Despite the death of one of their members, the rest of the gang seemed oblivious, since their attention was attracted by the spoils of tonight's raid. It was almost identical to Christmas day, a festival celebrated sparsely through the city. The den was lit up with the dim glow from the small fire they made in the middle, while the rest of the space was littered with empty boxes, packaging, wrappers and cans of all sorts of expensive exotic foods and clothes.

"Awesome!" One of them was yelping happily, dancing around the fire, "I got a pair of new shoes!" While the thief paraded around in his newly stolen goods, the rest cheered him on.

"Hey, Tsume! We're going to eat now. Aren't ya going to come over?"

He did not share in their indulgences, and without even turning round, the straight-faced, sombre leader growled out, "I'm not hungry. You go on ahead without me."

"Suit yourself."

Preferring to leave as the rest of the humans feasted on their oily and fatty garbage which they called _food_, Tsume slid out of the hideout unnoticed to sit near one of the rocks at the foot of the large tree which they took refuge under. Despite Freeze City being a domed city, how the large oak tree that was standing slapbang in the middle of a ghetto defied the basic laws of science.

The night was quiet.

He rather enjoyed staring down at the city from this view. Being here helped him clear his mind, and although he was alone, he disliked socialising with the humans anyway. He didn't mind being alone. He had been alone for some time now. This was not new. Suddenly, the events of tonight swarmed into his conscience. Gehl's face bombarded his thoughts. It was so clear. He remembered sinking his fangs to grab the boy, only to make him fall instead. He remembered Gehl's scream in his delicate ears. He remembered Gehl's hold loosening.

He remembered Gehl falling.

Tsume remained sitting, with his legs drawn to his chest, his arms resting over his knees, until his acute hearing picked up a noise.

Footsteps.

Loud, angry footsteps.  
They were heading his way.

He stood up and – **BLAM!** – he leapt, evading the two bullets that had bounced off the spot he'd previously been sitting on.

A human girl was making her way up towards the tree, holding a shotgun. She reloaded it, the two empty shells popping out of the case, before she aimed the nozzle of her weapon at him again, and pulled the trigger.

She looked familiar.

It was the girl at the marketplace he'd seen this afternoon. He recognised her by the clothes she was wearing – he recognised the same brown parka and the lumberjack checkered shirt, and those black hiking boots. She was missing her beanie hat however, revealing dirty blonde hair. Her eyes were an electric ice-blue in the dark, and her skin was fair under the moonlight.

It was not that he had particularly noticed human females before as he had no interest in their species whatsoever, but when he saw her in the market, he picked up a truly strange and awful smell. It was a mixture of axle grease, petrol, wood, dirt and metal. He thought it was offlandish for a human female to be smelling like that, especially after hearing the many wistful, woeful and downright filthy X-rated stories from the rest of his gang of thieves about human mating rituals and how they desperately desired a girl, or 'broad', 'bird', or 'dame'. From what he'd been told, the girl would probably be described by his lackeys as 'pretty', and from what he heard, human females apparently smelled nice. This one did not.

But why was this particular smelly human after him? Most human females avoided him. When he walked past them in streets they would whisper to themselves and glance over their shoulders, but aside from that, they never went up to him, spoke to him, or anything else for all that mattered. Had this one discovered his true identity? Was this one a hunter of his kind?

It didn't matter. All he knew was, this human was trouble. Once Tsume landed on the rocky ground, he kicked off again to avoid another bullet that whizzed towards him and with inhuman speed that made the human girl stare wide-eyed in amazement and disbelief, he'd reached for her in a blink of the eye and knocked the gun out of her arms before tackling her to the ground. She toppled backwards and fell down spread-eagled, with both of his paws pinning down her wrists. He came up close with her, face to face.

Fangs baring, Tsume snarled viciously, "_Who are you?_"

The human female screamed at him with vicious ferocity that matched his as she squirmed underneath his grip. "I'm going to kill you! You murderer!" Amongst the smell of petrol, mud and metal, he smelled something else. Leaning in closer to her, which made her shrink backwards, he took a quick whiff of her bizarre scent, which had her widening her eyes in utter shock. "What are you - "

"Shut up." He barked, although he briefly missed the reddening hue on her cheeks that hadn't exactly appeared on her cheeks before until now. He didn't need to sniff her anymore to realise the human not only smelled of dirt but she also timidly reeked of the same stench as the runt called Gehl. She was somehow associated with Gehl. _So_, he thought, _she wants revenge..._ He frowned inwardly; he didn't need loose ends. The girl thrashed and screamed but she was no match for his strength. As much as he did not kill humans, he did not feel remorse for killing humans if he needed to, either.

With a gnash of her teeth, she wriggled one arm out from his grasp and swung at him with something sharp but his quick instincts anticipated her attack and enabled him to dodge the futile attack. She had tried to stab him with a knife which she had cleverly concealed in her belt. In retaliation, Tsume's claw came bearing down on her wrist, stopping her from further attempts, and she cried out as the knife dropped out of her hand; the human's weak eyes would only see the illusion – the illusion of a sleek, silver blade slashing over her skin.

Fresh blood poured from the raw gash, and she was gasping at the intense pain stemming from the flesh wound. Abruptly, the metallic coppery smell of blood assaulted his strong nose. Yet, before he got the chance to stab his fangs into her throat to finish the job for good, another bullet ricocheted by his side and he moved off her in one fluid movement.

"Get off her!" A man's voice yelled threateningly.

It was another meddlesome human: an old man, who was supporting himself on a walking stick. He was carrying a blunderbuss which was aimed at him. Tsume didn't need to be told twice to leave. He lifted himself off her and sprinted away, leaping off the walls of a nearby building with agility that was too seamless and impossible for a human to be capable of. He effortlessly reached the roof in a matter of seconds and landed in a crouching position, settling himself to watch the humans from his distance.

"Jia!" From his spot, Tsume watched the old man rush over to the bleeding girl who was cradling her slashed wrist, "Jia, no!"

The man lifted her off the ground and inspected her wrist to reveal three claw marks, much to his horror, but the human girl seemed unfazed by her wound. "I'm okay!" She exclaimed, "I'm fine!"

"No, you're not!"

Grabbing the shotgun off the ground, the human girl attempted to follow in the same direction Tsume had escaped to. "He's getting away! I need to go after him!"

"Jia, stop it! You're not thinking straight! Stop this madness right now! I didn't teach you these things for you to harm or kill people!" The man screamed, pulling the shotgun out of her hands and holding it away from her reach, "You are not to go after this man again, do you hear me?!"

"But what about Gehl?!"

"Calm down! Killing this man won't bring Gehl back! It won't change anything!" He grabbed her shoulders and proceeded to shake her roughly. "What's gotten into you? You aren't like this!"

"I don't care!"

"LISTEN TO ME!"

"_NO!_"

Tsume watched the girl shove the man away, who was sent careening to the ground, his walking stick collapsing underneath him, and the girl gasped. "Oof!" The man grunted, as he tumbled, landing on his side.

The girl's eyes widened in horror at her own actions. "Dad!" She had returned to his side in minutes and was helping him up, "Oh no! I'm so sorry!"

"I'm fine."

"Dad…"

"…I've already lost one, I won't lose another…" The old man muttered before he inevitably burst into tears, the blunderbuss clattering out of his hand and onto the ground. He sobbed heavily, tears flowing down his wrinkled, withered cheeks, "...I've already lost Gehl...I can't lose you too."

The human girl called Jia was silent, before she too broke down into dreary, weighty sobs that seemed to echo in the night. "...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, dad..."

"It's okay, Jia…It's okay…"

Tsume watched on indifferently, before turning away to jump off the roof and onto the next building, returning to the hideout.

_Humans are annoying..._


	3. Chapter 3

I don't remember much about Wolf's Rain so I started watching a few episodes the other day. It's really hard to incorporate an OC into the canon...also, I tried to buy the whole DVD set on ebay but someone beat me during the very last second! -Sob- cos my loooong absence of Wolf's Rain, I apologise for any OOC or anything that doesn't really make sense in general.

Anyway, thanks for reviewing the previous chapter, Leyshla Gisel! I remember you reviewed on my other stories too. Thanks!

**...**

**Snow**

**...**

Jia couldn't sleep at all last night. She lay in bed, red-eyed and hissing with pain.

Her newly-bandaged wrist was burning. No, her whole body seemed to hurt. Yesterday's clash with the dark-skinned man named Tsume made her rethink twice about the strength of males. His power, brutality and force over her was otherworldly.

The throbbing in her hand interrupted her thoughts, and in a bid to shut out the pain, she rolled onto her side on the bed, clutching her hand to herself and squeezing her eyes shut; she felt unwell and sick, groggy and tired. Ged had taken her home last night before the police arrived due to the disturbance they caused. Returning to the hospital didn't exactly help as they could not afford the medicine for her wrist, which would become infected if not treated properly. For the time being, home remedies would have to do, as well as a 20-something year old tube of ointment Ged had salvaged from his guard duty days, which didn't really seem to ease her pain.

When the pain gradually lessened, she slipped out of bed. From the lounge, she could hear noise from the small TV; dad was obviously not at work today. She ignored the bowl of porridge Ged had left for her (with a plastic lid on top to keep the heat in) as she had no desire to eat; she could see Ged sitting slumped in his armchair with his eyes closed, clutching a letter to himself.

Crouching down beside her father, she plucked the letter out of his hands and unfolded it, before trying to read the contents. Although she recognised a minority of the words, she couldn't read the rest. She saw the word 'Gehl', 'cremation' (whatever that was), and 'funeral'. From those words she had the feeling that it was a letter about Gehl's death.

Jia stood back up before tiptoeing around her dad's armchair and out of the house and she stepped outside, to see the van parked in the garage with the bonnet lid lifted up, supported by two bottles of water. Ged must have been trying to fix it. She strolled out of the yard to see a lorry standing near one of their neighbour's homes where workers were unloading some boxes, and she quickly rushed over. After talking to the driver, he'd agreed to give her a lift. Once the lorry had returned to Freeze City, Jia hopped off and headed straight to the citizen's advice bureau, but there was no news about yesterday.

She gloomily returned to the streets, munching on a piece of bread. She kept her head low, her eyes trained on the ground, and she accidentally bumped into someone and quickly looked up. She'd bumped into two young men who appeared roughly her age; one had messy light-brown hair, dressed in a thick mustard yellow anorak while his quieter, skinnier and slender companion had longer, darker brown hair and haunting, emotionless blue eyes. While the guy in yellow was dressed appropriately, his friend was (yet again) another one who she thought was dressed a little too thinly for the weather.

After exchanging brief apologies, Jia continued her journey alone but she could hear the one in yellow saying, "Urgh, what's that smell?" And she could feel someone's steely gaze on her back.

Stiffening up all over, Jia briefly pondered if the comment had been aimed at her and craned her head round to see the yellow guy glancing at her direction before quickly turning away when he realised she had caught him looking.

"Hige." His friend merely said, and the yellow one scurried away after him, and Jia was left, dumbfounded and strangely insulted. _Should_ she feel insulted? Without a second to delay, she inauspiciously sniffed herself by lifting the lapels of her jacket to her nose. She couldn't smell anything.

Now that she thought about it more, the house she lived in _was_ filled with garbage from the junkyard. It wouldn't be surprising if she did smell, but could not detect any smell coming from herself. Not to mention that baths only came three or four times a week. If they had a lack of water, baths would be restricted to two times a week, maybe less. She also knew she wasn't the possibly the most cleanest girl out there. It couldn't be helped, but hearing those words come from a guy's mouth inevitably unsettled her.

Jia hurriedly rubbed at her cheek with her hand and threw her gaze down to her fingertips. They were covered in a brown, dust-like substance. Dirty. She was dirty. Her lip trembled somewhat. Previously it never really bothered her because everyone else was dirty and ragged just like her but now it did. She hadn't actually thought about how others perceived her…how _guys_ perceived her…

She pulled her hood over her head and drifted into one of the alleyways, before coming to a stop when she realised she'd accidentally walked right into one filled with garbage. A garbage dump seemed fitting for her. She lived in one for all that mattered. Jia was about to choose a different route to return to the city gates until she saw one of the garbage bags moving, before it toppled over, revealing a dog amongst the rubbish, rifling its nose around. She gasped, having never seen such a large creature in the streets before. Should she alert the dog catchers?

But when she saw the dog chewing away at old food that were at least a week old, she couldn't help but feel sorry, and she couldn't help as though she could _somehow_ relate to it.

When the dog looked up, she stared back as its golden eyes settled onto her, and the dog made a move forwards, emitting a low whine. Oh, right. She was holding a piece of bread. The poor creature seemed to need it more than she did. Automatically, Jia stuck her hand out, offering her bread to it.

"I know it's not much, but I hope it's better than garbage."

The dog padded closer and closer, before it stopped right in front of her, sniffing at the bread, her hand, her clothes... Then its jaws pulled back, revealing jagged, sharp canines and the bread was snatched from her hand and into the dog's mouth. It chewed greedily, crumbs falling, and she watched. The dog itself was a tawny brown color, and it had four silver bangle-like rings on one of its frontal paws, which made her wonder if it had an owner. After it finished eating, its tail wagged, and it raised its muzzle under her hand, and the top of its head found her palm. Soon, Jia found herself stroking it idly but quickly drew away.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have time to play with you. If...If Gehl was still around, he would've loved to have a dog."

Turning away from the dog, she left the alleyway swiftly but threw a concerned glance over her shoulder. The dog was sitting on its haunches now, as though it would wait for her, should she come back.

...

"They say the Nobles have put a bounty on every gang in the city."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, they've started to round people up. And our stuff's been kinda high profile. We figured we'd be next."

Tsume was sitting with his back to his gang of unruly thieves. They'd calmed down since yesterday's raid, and now Gehl's death was creeping up. Despite the unprovoked attack from a random human female yesterday, Tsume had returned to the same spot he had been sitting in last night. If she came back for seconds, he would gladly take her on. She was no match for him anyway, and hell, it was actually _amusing_.

The thief continued, "Maybe it's time we should move on. There's a freight train pulling outta town at midnight. We can sneak on – "

"Our next raid is going to be tonight." Tsume interrupted, without sparing a second glance, "...Make the usual preparations."

"Why? So you can just sit back and watch? Gehl's dead because of you." sneered another one of his lackeys, "You let him die. Sorry pal, but I ain't working with you anymore. I wouldn't want to slow you down now, would I?"

Tsume did not respond to that particular stabbing, jibing comment. Instead, he moved to stand. "Suit yourself." He muttered, ignoring the stunned facial expressions on the humans, "We'll meet up at midnight. Get the word out."

A brief stroll in the city would keep his mind off things. Tsume made his way through the winding, weaving alleyways and on towards the main street until he saw the large bumbling van of the Noble's Special Security Force parked in the very centre. He abruptly stopped and kept himself hidden in the shadows, watching from his distance behind the wall. The Special Police Forces were leading away a group of dishevelled-looking men in single file, all with their hands on the back of their heads.

"Tch." He grunted, before he turned back round to the same direction he had been walking from.

At that moment, his nose was hit with a familiar scent.

Looking up, and he saw the same female from last night just a few metres away from him in the same alley. Her gaze landed on him the same time he laid his eyes on her. In a matter of seconds, his instincts roared into life. He could suddenly feel her anger and hatred, and she reached behind her only to grasp at thin air. She remembered she hadn't come with her shotgun or her knife this time around. Her mouth fell open in a gasp upon realisation. He moved to an offensive stance but ultimately, he had no business with her. The right step to take was to leave, since it wouldn't be wise to start a fight or create any kind of disturbance that would bring attention to himself, especially when there were police just around the corner… and the thieves had oh-so-kindly pointed out to him that the Nobles had placed bounties on their head.

Without further ado, he leapt off the ground, charging at her and to his surprise, the female stood her ground against him. Using one outstretched arm, she held her hand up, palm flat and exclaimed, "Stop right ther – _uwwaghhh!_"

She did not even see him coming, only a distinct black blur in the broad daylight, but suddenly she found herself flung to the side like a ragdoll. She finished her sentence with a jumbled cry that brought a smirk to his lips as he sped past her, knocking her to the side in progress with unimaginable strength, and she crashed into a couple of bins, sending garbage bags and rats flying. When he didn't hear her getting back up, he realised he must have knocked her out cold. His smirk widened.

Little did Tsume know that the day was about to become even more eventful.

….

Jia's eyes stirred open for the second time in the day. It was dark. The streets were empty. Glancing around, she realised she was lying amongst the trash.

"Eurghhh…" She groaned.

Knocking aside a few trashbags and kicking away at some rats that were scurrying over her boots, she forced herself off the ground and tried to regain her balance, clutching at her throbbing head. Damn, that guy called Tsume really packed a punch. He merely ran past her and he'd almost given her a concussion. She looked up at the dark sky. Ged would be worried…it was time to head back… but how could she leave the city now, with no van? She also had no money for a hotel…an idea sprang in her mind: she could try hitching a lift on one of the freight trains; all she had to do was get off when she saw their junkyard…but what if she got arrested for trespassing?

Glumly, she hung her head and sauntered further into the alleyway. Suddenly, a bright light flashed ahead and she had to shield her eyes from the intense light. Soon, the light was accompanied with a strange, screaming noise that felt too ethereal to have come from a human. Then, the light was gone. An airship, a little purple star in the sky, was seen zooming away in the distance.

She stared on emotionlessly. _Yeah, whatever._

Deciding she'd had enough drama for tonight, she shrugged off what she'd just seen and heard and limped out of the alley and into the main street, finding a random, rundown payphone. Using some coins from her pocket which she had been saving up for more bread, she slid them into the slot and dialled the house phone number. As soon as the phone on the other end was picked up, she winced at the loud yelling and screaming.

When it was finally her turn to speak, she realised her throat had gone a bit dry, "Hey, dad? Yes, I know, I'm sorry for not telling you… Listen…I'm gonna stay in Freeze City for a while…there's something I gotta do."

…..

The next morning, Jia made her way to the oak tree, hoping she'd find Tsume, although she was not sure why she was confronting him bare-handed, without a gun or a knife or any means to defend herself. Yet, as expected, she came face to face with the man; he had been skulking out of his hideout.

He stopped.

Jia stopped also.

At first, they stared at each other for a long time. Behind his sunglasses, his golden eyes levelled her gaze, and she swallowed down the dry lump in her throat. What would he do this time?

"Damn, you sure are persistent." His voice was low and gravelly; she shivered inwardly. He would've known if she following him because of her scent, but he hadn't smelled it lurking around. He added, "What the hell do you want from me?"

Her mouth moved, but nothing came out. Deep inside, however, her mind was screaming at him. _You killed my brother. I'm not letting you get away with it!_

Tsume stared at this stupid girl who was standing in front of him. This would be the first time a human female had marked him down like this. He also did not exactly believe that this human female could be Gehl's sister, since they looked nothing alike. "…If you haven't noticed, you're a bit empty-handed at the moment." He sneered at her with a smirk, "You're no match for me."

Before she could reply, she spotted three members of the Noble's Special Police Force charging towards them behind Tsume, and he turned round instantly, realising that she had spotted something behind him, and Jia was forgotten as Tsume focused on them. He ran past them the same way he did to her back in the alleyway, and she watched him knock the men down to the ground, flicking them away as though they were nothing but ants. Perched on the stony platform above where the giant old oak tree was, Tsume saw one of his gang members along with a chief officer. A few more officers were getting their weapons ready to intercept him.

Tsume leapt, stopping shortly in front of the chief officer. The chief officer gasped but Tsume was too fast; in a blink of the eye, he'd batted him away with ease, throwing him against the tree trunk - and the thief - the one who'd sold him out, began to run, in a bid to escape.

Jia watched the entire sequence with her mouth agape.

Tsume's movements were…ghost-like. He was there one moment, and then he was not. He had been standing in front of the man, then _whoosh! _He was suddenly standing behind him. With one thrust of his arm, he'd knocked the man flat on his back on the ground and put a blade to his throat. They exchanged a few, unintelligible words. She could not hear from her spot, and she thought Tsume would kill the man, but when more police officers came scurrying after him, Tsume let go and backed away, then took off once more, jumping ten or more stories and onto the roof of one of the buildings before disappearing.

She stared wide-eyed at the spectacle in her spot.

The police were rounding themselves up again, determined not to let Tsume escape. "Quick! He went that way!" A police van pulled up beside the remaining, uninjured police and Jia watched them clamber in before the siren was switched on. She followed too, yet kept a safe distance away.

After a long time tailing the police van, they finally pulled over, and she saw a distinct black blur sprinting on one of the rooftops of the building.

Tsume.

The police van pulled over once again and officers came pouring out, shouting and screaming in alarm, "He's there! Get him!"

Jia hid behind a large heap of boxes, and suddenly, she saw Tsume fall. A black dog – wherever it had come from – had leapt up and slashed at his arm with its maws. The height was enough to cripple a man. What happened next happened very quickly. Tsume was plunging from the roof, and then - _Crash!_ Tsume and the dog landed into a pile of crates, and as the police rushed over, a furry gray creature came sprinting out, leaving the men confused and perplexed.

Tsume was nowhere to be found.

For the umpteenth time that day, Jia's jaw dropped in mid-air. She found no words to speak. Hell, even her brain seemed conflicted and incapable of making a coherent sentence. _...He's...He can't... He's not...not human..._

…..

With no luck in pursuing her brother's murderer, Jia returned to the city gates as soon as the sky darkened only to see a familiar man with a walking stick, standing stiffly beside a familiar van; he held a displeased frown etched on his old face as he eyed her. Her breath stilled, as she stopped a few yards in front of him.

"Gayna!" Ged barked, and she flinched. The city gates were busy today, and many people turned round to see what the ruckus was about. "Gayna, get over here right now!"

Jia found herself waddling over quietly, obediently.

As soon as she stopped in front of him, Ged raised his hand and slapped her across the face, hard. She did not retaliate, though she began to tremble as her face began to redden painfully. "...If anything had happened to you...if you saw that man again and he hurt you, _killed_ you, because I wasn't there to protect you..."

Her mouth opened somewhat. "Dad..."

"We are going home, and you are not going to go after this man anymore," He muttered, before he moved to the driver's seat of the vehicle, "Now get in the van."

"But – "

"GET IN THE VAN!"

Shaken by the intensity of his tone, Jia hurried to the van, flung open the passenger seat door and sat herself down. Ged slammed the door shut behind her before limping to the driver's seat. The force of the door closing was enough to make the van rock on its wheels. Ged was _furious_.

"Put your seatbelt on."

She pulled the strap and into the buckle quickly and silently.

Ged fastened his own before starting the van. "We're going home."

"But dad – "

"I SAID WE'RE GOING HOME!" He yelled, before he broke into a violent cough, wheezing and spluttering like there was no tomorrow. Jia reached for him, but he shoved her hand away angrily. He managed to choke out the following words in between deep gasps and guttural croaks, "Don't even think about it. I'm still angry at you."

Jia returned to her seat, as Ged finally stopped coughing. He reversed the van smoothly and in minutes, they were leaving the city. She rested her head against the van's window, staring at the moon in the sky as the van chugged down the lonely path - the path they always took – which were adjacent to the city walls. A few rocky bumps along the way made her jerk around in the seat, but she wasn't the least bothered by it at all.

The sky was becoming a light grey colour, and she could see a few flakes of snow floating around, gradually becoming more and more heavier and she could see nothing, not a hair or hide from anyone, until -

"Dad, look!"

"What?" grunted Ged, as Jia began pointing frantically outside. He threw a sideways glance to see what Jia was shrieking about; she was pointing to the factory, where he could see those massive beams that led to the unused gatehouse that led to the outside of the city…and he could also see four little figures running across them. The sound of bullets ricocheting could be heard, if not, faintly. "Hn. Just some petty criminals, Jia."

Jia was captivated by the sight, however. She could also see some other people with him – she recognised the same mustard yellow anorak boy and his brown-haired friend. There was a younger kid with them too, this time. Why were they being chased? Were they thieves, too? She gasped as soon as she caught sign of a familiar man who came out shortly. "It's him; Tsume. The police are chasing him." She said.

"Don't watch. It's got nothing to do with us. It won't end well anyway…." Ged muttered as he turned back round to the front, deciding to focus on the uneven terrain ahead, while Jia continued staring.

Although she could not see him very well from her distance in the van, but she recognised the black clothes and the tan skin; there was Tsume, standing at the very top of the wall.

He was unmoving, as though stuck in thought. A bullet hit off the ground near his feet, but he was unfazed. As she watched, there was a horrible feeling rising in the pit of her gut; she even lifted herself off her seat slightly, making the belt stretch, and she pressed her palms flat against the dirty window, nervously wondering what he was going to do.

How could he escape? This time, the height, would definitely kill him!

But to her horror and utter shock, Tsume leapt down, and her jaw dropped. He disappeared into the derelict gatehouse.

_Instead of surrendering, he chose death…_

Jia sat back in her seat, horrified at what she'd just witnessed. A man had committed suicide right before her eyes. "D-Dad…"

"I told you not to watch."

He was met with silence.

Ged sighed.

"Jia." He began, remembering his days as a guard in Black City, "…According to some people, a life in prison is a fate worse than death."

"…He jumped…"

He thought for a while, but found he had nothing to say, and Ged continued driving, pulling at the windscreen wiper toggle to clear away some of the snow that was building up. "There's some leftover potatoes from last night." was all he could say.

"I'm not hungry." Jia mumbled, and she bravely mustered another glance out of the window again. This time, she could see four indeterminate shapes gliding amongst the snow. Upon closer inspection, she gasped, "Dad, look!"

He grumbled inwardly. "What is it now?"

She didn't know. She wasn't sure, but they looked a lot like…

"_Wolves_!" Jia exclaimed, "They're wolves, dad!"

"What?!" Immediately, Ged stopped the van and it came to a screeching stop. They lurched forwards in their seat due to the sudden impact before bouncing backwards, hitting off their seats. In a matter of seconds, a blur of mixed colors dashed by the front of their van, and Ged and Jia were both staring at the scene with their mouths open. "T-that's impossible..." Ged breathed out, while Jia's slanted lips slowly turned into a smile.

Indeed there were wolves. There were four of them running in a close group, braving the snowstorm together; she could see that one was white, two were a golden brown color and finally…she saw a gray wolf.

"Where do you think they're going?" She asked, as the wolves sped past them. Maybe they had noticed their presence, but chose to ignore it. "Do you think they're trying to find Paradise?"

"Hn." Ged grunted, but when Jia opened the door, he turned to her sharply, "Jia! What do you think you're doing?"

In the snow, Jia hobbled towards the path where the wolves had dashed past and gazed around for any more sight of the wolves. There was none. As quickly as they appeared, they disappeared quickly, too. In their wake, and the only evidence that they had been there, were a trail of disturbed, mashed up snow. She could make out large, jumbled paw prints, and she reached an outstretched hand and gently placed her palm over them. They were...real.

Soon, she could hear the van door slamming shut and looked up when she saw Ged joining her. "Look, dad." She gestured to the paw prints in the snow.

Ged sniffed slightly then proceeded to glance around the empty, snow-ridden landscape, "They were probably someone's dogs, Jia." He muttered under his breath as he adjusted his hat.

"They were massive!"

"I've seen some large dogs that size before."

"They're heading to the Ruins of Giga City."

"Yeah, well, a lot of wild animals live there, Jia. Now let's go home." With that said, Ged began heading towards the van.

Jia stood back up, staring at the dark, bleak horizon.

_If they're going to find Paradise, I wanna come along too..._


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks for reviewing! Chapters 1-3 basically covered episodes 1-3, but I'm going to skip episodes 4 and 5, and start from Episode 6 where Kiba and the others meet Zali, Moss and Cole. But to be honest, most of the story is from Jia's side. Enjoy ~

**…**

**Toboe**

**…**

**A couple of days later…**

A rough hand was shaking her shoulder and she snapped out of her musings.

"We're here." Ged announced stoically; without sparing her another look, he sat up in his seat and began limping away and out towards the aisle of the train with the rest of the passengers who were waiting to alight. Jia was left alone to deal with their luggage. She did a quick stretch before reaching up to the overhead compartment to grab their bags and cases. The remainder of their luggage, ie, their supplies, were to be collected later. She struggled for a few minutes with Ged's heavy bag, slinging it over her back along with her own bag. Jia then inched forwards to join her father.

It had been a few days since Jia had witnessed the wolves. They were last seen heading off towards the direction of Giga City Ruins, a place that was once teeming with civilisation, but now it was a shadow, a ghost town...a shell of its former self. Haunting stories from travellers revealed that it was rumoured to be governed by a gigantic machine that went rogue, a machine from one of the Noble's Elite Guard which was left behind during a civil war years ago. Jia was a little worried for the wolves, and wondered if she would see such magnificent creatures again.

Days after attending Gehl's cremation, Ged decided to take the train to the next closest city, the _Ocean Terminal_, to peddle off some of their wares. He said that they'd sold all possible junk to everyone they knew in Freeze City, and that it was time to move on to find a new place, a new market. He bought two tickets in Economy class and had Jia squashed up against the window in an uncomfortable, itchy seat for five and a half hours.

And ever since Gehl's death, things were moving at a rapid pace. Ged no longer talked about the boy. Neither did Jia. Ged stopped smiling…not that he did smile a lot, but the rate of his smiles drastically decreased. As the long hours rolled by, it was as though Gehl never even existed and soon, Jia and Ged settled into a form of jaded acceptance that they were missing one family member, but could not let it stop them from continuing on with their own lives. In fact, Ged even took Gehl's belongings and sold them, much to Jia's annoyance, and reluctance. She had spent a night and few waking moments crying, and one night, when she passed Ged's room to fix herself a glass of water, she thought she could hear Ged crying in his room too.

After they left the train and retrieved the rest of their luggage, they made their way towards the main market, and Ged set up his wares on the ground over an old picnic mat while Jia squatted down beside the money container. On the mat, they'd spread out a couple of wristwatches (which Ged had fixed and Jia had scrubbed and polished until they gleamed and her fingers were raw and sore). Along with the watches were two radios, some can openers, a bottle opener, some lighters, a gas lamp and a torch, all in lavish display. Ged seemed pleased with his handiwork, and although they were everyday, ordinary goods, he had a feeling the citizens of Ocean Terminal may need them.

The morning flew by quickly; a few customers came and went. A wristwatch was sold, so was the radio, and the torch. Jia was busy counting their earnings when Ged went to greet more customers.

"Well, well, well…what have we here?" snickered an unfamiliar voice.

She looked up to see Ged facing a group of men; in the middle, presumably the leader, was a young man in a mouldy shirt and brown slacks. His hair was obscured with a tight yet dirty, charcoal grey cap that had a few loose stitches and patches, and the rest of his cronies were also in equally tattered wear. It seemed the citizens of Ocean Terminal were not any better off than those in Freeze City. The young man was handsome, with his angled chin and rugged features, but from his swagger, his walk, and the way he looked at them, she could tell he held a cocky and arrogant demeanour.

Apparently, he had been wandering around the market and picking up random goods and now he had sauntered over to their little spot; Jia quietened as Ged began work. "Afternoon, gentlemen. See anything you like?"

They glanced around for a while until the young man who was standing in the middle of the group spoke first, "Hmm...shiny," He muttered, as he hooked up one of the wristwatches with his pinky finger, " But not quite what I'm looking for."

"And what might you be looking for, sir? We got all sorts of goods available here."

"Hn. You got anything that's _not _covered in dirt?"

Whilst Jia felt insulted, Ged was able to maintain his composure, "I assure you, sir, these are the best second-hand wares available."

The young man scoffed, "Second-hand? No way, I wanted something new, not people's trash." He sneered again, before he turned to Jia, who was still in her little corner totalling their earnings using her fingers, and curiously, he looked at her from head to toe. "Say...How much for the girl?"

When Jia turned round questioningly, Ged abruptly moved in front of her protectively. "She's not for sale."

His response was a snicker, "Come on, old man, you wanna make some money or not? I don't want any of the cheap junk you got here, I want the girl."

"She's NOT for sale." Ged asserted sternly.

"Alright, how about twenty bucks?" The young man then proceeded to dig around his pockets before he brought out a wad of bills, "No? Okay, how about thirty? Forty?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but my daughter is not for sale."

"Okay, okay, how about I get her for a day? No? Fine. How about five minutes, huh? I get five minutes and you get fifty bucks?"

Jia felt all hair rise in the back of her neck as she pocketed their earnings safely into her parka. This would be the first time this was happening. Even in Freeze City, no man had offered money for her. For HER. For...For five minutes... of her. How degrading...how embarrassing... how _disgusting_... Jia swallowed down the lump in her throat. She felt humiliated and horrified she'd been treated like a _whore_. However, with Ged's reassuring hand on her shoulder, they ignored the man; Ged got up and lifted Jia to stand beside him. "Let's go." He uttered quickly, before he hastily ushered her away.

"...What about our stuff?" She squeaked out.

"Leave it."

However, the young man was not going to let them go. "Hey, get back here! I always get what I want, ya hear me?! I'll give you more! How about a hundred? Final offer!"

He was ignored again.

Ged and Jia picked up their pace in a bid to leave.

Seething, the young man then turned to his lackeys. "Get her. I don't care what you do to the old man."

Before they could take another step, Ged and Jia found themselves surrounded by the young man's cronies, Ged immediately shoved Jia behind him. "Don't you dare lay a finger on her, you creeps!" Ged barked, but the number of men overpowered him, and he was quickly disposed of by being shoved to the side.

"Dad!" Jia screamed, but before she could rush to help him, she was seized and held back. She yelled, struggling against the men who had grabbed her and dragged her away as two men began to surrounded Ged and kick him. "_Dad_!"

...

Meanwhile, a reddish brown wolf plodded through the streets quietly. It was carrying herbs in its mouth, and it stopped in its tracks as soon as it picked up a disturbance. Something was happening in the marketplace. It trotted over to the market square cautiously, and sniffed the air. It recognised the same axle grease-like smell back in Freeze City, the same grease-like smell that belonged to a girl who had fed him in the alleyway (and not the other one with the pet hawk, he woefully reminded himself). His ears perked up when he heard her scream, and he raced forwards, coming to a stop to see a group of men manhandling a girl and an old man, while a young man stood, watching them with a slight grin. The other humans were laying low, unwilling to step in.

"Dad!" The girl was screaming, struggling against her captors. "Stop it!"

However, the young man had grabbed the girl by the hair, and he ignored her sharp cry of protest and buried his face into her neck, his lips by her ear, "I like them feisty." He sneered, before he grasped her by the chin, lifting it up so she was facing him, "There, isn't that better now? If you come with me quietly, I'll tell them to leave your dad alone."

"No!" She was wailing, until a switchblade was suddenly hovering a few inches in front of her nose.

The man was saying, "You better come with me quietly, I don't want to ruin that face of yours."

In response, the girl glowered at him, before her own hand darted out and in seconds, she had turned the knife on him - her father had taught her well - and the blade of the pocket knife had sliced at him instead. "Don't touch me!"

The man began screaming as blood gushed out from the wound on his face. His cap fell off as he doubled over, revealing startling lime-green hair.

A Noble.

The men stopped kicking at the father. "Master Richter!" came their horrified gasps.

Immediately, the young man named Richter was surrounded, and the father and daughter were forgotten for a split second. However, the father was quick to react. "Jia, _run_!"

But the girl could only stare on in horror as the Noble clutched at his slashed cheek. "You bitch!" He was spitting venomously, while squeezing his eyes shut as the pain consumed him. "Arghhh! My face! My beautiful face! You've ruined my beautiful face! Don't just stand there! _Get her_!"

Her eyes widened briefly as the men began to advance on her, and she turned round, breaking off into a frantic sprint.

...

Jia was running.

She was being chased. She could hear her heart thrashing in her ear, the blood rushing in her veins. Adrenaline pulsed through her entire system as if there was no tomorrow. There would be none for her, if she got caught.

She had assaulted a **Noble**.

Out of all the people she could assault, it had to be a_ Noble._

But why was she running? Should she not answer to her crimes? Morally, she should, but instinctively, she ran, not just because Ged told her to, either. Besides, if there was something she knew about the Nobles, was that they were quite shady and corrupt, and overall they were a force to reckon with, and she recognised the unusual green hair to be a trait of Lady Jaguara's family. She briefly remembered she'd heard his name being yelled out.

Richter.

Jia cursed mentally when she realised. From Ged's education regarding Nobles, Richter was one of Jaguara's cousins, but lesser known (albeit he was still of Noble blood). Although rarely seen outside of Black City walls, Richter was a womaniser, and was supposed to be in his early twenties; he had built a reputation for himself which was based on debauchery, hedonistic tendencies, and rumours of moonlit _orgies_. She didn't know he was known for leaving Black City and visiting other cities, dressed as a commoner. It didn't make sense, but it didn't have to. People were crazy these days. The Nobles were perhaps no exception.

Jia felt sick to the stomach. As her life flashed before her eyes, she knew there was no way in hell Jaguara would give her mercy. But if she ran, how could she live as a fugitive? How would she live from now on? What if she didn't even escape from this? And had her life always been this miserable and unfortunate before Gehl's death?

"Over here!"

A voice was calling to her. But who? Who would be dumb enough to save some measly, poor, peasant girl from a Noble? Jia looked up to see...

_Gehl?_

No, not Gehl.  
It was a young boy, roughly Gehl's age...he looked a bit like Gehl too...except..._he was not Gehl_.

Firstly, he reminded her a lot of Gehl. Maybe it was the hair. The hair was not the same hairstyle, of course. Gehl's hair didn't make sense and Jia always told him off for not combing it. How he put up with tangles and knots was beyond her knowledge. This boy...his hair was short, but flicked out near the base of his neck...and his hair was combed to the side. He looked... neat. He was dressed in a thin red shirt with the sleeves rolled up to mid-elbow and khaki slacks. Another person who was dressed too sparingly for the ever-present winter weather, Jia thought to herself. The boy was waving his arms vigorously, the four bangles on his one wrist clacking against each other noisily. Hmm, bangles. She had seen bangles like those somewhere before, but where?

"Over here! Quickly!" The boy called. As soon as he caught her attention, he turned away and disappeared into one of the alleyways. She had no idea why, but Jia followed suit as quickly as she could; further ahead, she could see that the boy was merely a few feet away. "Follow me!"

Again, she followed him. But she could hear her pursuers getting closer and closer – they were not backing off! With all her strength, she ran, trailing after the mysterious boy who she had mistaken for Gehl for a brief moment, until he ducked and squeezed into a narrow opening in one of the buildings which there was absolutely no way she would be able to fit in. Jia tried to squish herself in, but to no avail. Eventually, she gave up and slid back out, panting heavily.

When the boy saw that she was not following, he peeked out from the narrow tunnel (that seemed to lead to the sewer) and with a quiet, "Oh," he crawled back out and quickly scanned their surroundings. "Ahh...um...we could, er...no, that won't work..."

Realising the boy had no more ideas, Jia glanced around desperately until she caught sight of a potential escape route. "This way." She grabbed the little boy's arm without further ado, ignoring his little astonished cry.

She led him towards one of the alleyways that would hopefully leave them to a safer route. However, to their dismay, it was a dead end and it only contained a large dumpster and a few garbage bags. She ignored the boy's wrinkled expression of clear disgust and revulsion and rushed towards the dumpster, lifting the lid up to climb in. "Get in."

"O-okay..." came the boy's nervous reply.

"I'll give you a boost." She said quickly, placing her palms together before she lowered herself on one knee. The boy looked at her strangely but nevertheless, he stepped into her awaiting palms and for a split second, Jia actually struggled with the weight; the boy was heavier than he looked. With the added leverage, he slid inside easily, and Jia slipped inside afterwards after hiking one leg up after the other. Together, they sunk into waist-length piles of rubbish. Jia closed the lid over them and held her breath. The boy did the same. Together, they waited nervously and anxiously in darkness. Loud footsteps could be heard outside.

The boy's mouth opened, "Do you think they'll – "

"Shh!" Jia shushed him by clamping a hand over his open mouth.

"Mmmphh...mphh!" The boy muffled on as Jia tried to listen.

Footsteps approached the dumpster. She gasped, and turned to the boy who looked back at her with equal alarm. They exchanged somewhat awkward looks before Jia let go of him and gestured to the trash; she nodded, and he nodded. Jia took a deep breath and pushed herself into the garbage, letting the trash spill over herself. The boy did the same. In a matter of seconds the lid of the dumpster was lifted up.

"Urgh, that's disgusting." A voice was complaining. The top of the rubbish was prodded at with something, maybe a stick. Hopefully they had sunk under the rubbish deep enough to avoid the probing stick. After a few more inspecting prods, the lid was lowered back down. They were encompassed in darkness once again.

"Did you find anything?" Another voice could be heard from outside.

"Nope."

"It's a dead end anyway. They couldn't have gone far; let's go."

The footsteps were going further and further away until they gradually dissimilated into silence. A few minutes later, Jia and the boy propped their heads back up, inhaling in clean, and not-so-rancid air. She pulled a banana peel off her head, panting heavily, "...That was way too close." She whispered breathlessly.

"Yeah, no kidding." The boy whispered back, shaking his own head free of morsels and tidbits.

Immediately, a wave of panic surged through her despite their narrow escape. "Ahh! I forgot about dad!" Jia cried, flapping her hands around in distress.

"Wait! You can't go back out there!"

With that, she sighed heavily, sadly. "Ohhhh why did I have to slash his face? Whyyyyy?!" She exclaimed in distraught as she wrung her hands together in frustration. Honestly it was the first instinct that came to her when he touched her. "I-I panicked...I was scared...and...and I freaked out and then it was a total blur, I mean I wasn't even thinking straight...but now I've gone and hurt a Noble! And I ran! Oh my god, I'm a wanted woman!"

"D-don't worry, I'm sure everything's gonna be okay."

Her violent ways were beginning to unsettle her. She turned to the boy then. "Why did you help me anyway?"

The boy blinked at her numbly for a split second, "Uh...well, I saw you in the marketplace a-and you needed help, so..."

"Who are you? What's your name?"

He scratched at the back of his head with a hapless grin as she pressed on, "Toboe. My name is Toboe, hehe."

"Toe-Boo-Ay? How do you spell that?"

"Uh, I think it's T-O..."

As he continued, Jia stared at him quizzically, then her thin lips tugged into a somewhat relieved smile in response. "…Thanks for saving my life, Toboe." She reached over to pat him on his shoulder, and he was chuckling awkwardly again.

"What's your name?" He then asked.

"Jia."

"Gee-ah." Toboe repeated to himself, before his grin widened to a little extent. "That's a nice name."

She gave him a weak smile. _Wait 'til you find out my real name_, she thought with a slight grimace, "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, Toboe."

"It's okay, you needed help!" Toboe replied enthusiastically, before he added, "Hey, why don't you come with me for now? If those men are looking for you...maybe you should lay low for a while."

She shook her head, and began to push the lid of the dumpster above their heads with her palms flat. When she had lifted the lid to a fraction, she hastily checked left and right, and when the coast was clear, she eased the lid up completely with a grunt and broad daylight streamed into their vision. "I can't. I need to find my father. Here, I'll give you a boost again." She said, and she put her hands together so he could step up, but he shook his head.

"I can manage this time." Toboe scrambled up, kicking and wriggling, and eventually crawled out of the dumpster. Jia followed shortly and stopped to stand beside the boy, who was now inhaling deeply. "Boy, am I glad to be back in the fresh air."

"Urgh, the smell..." Jia pinched her nose with her fingers, "And these were my best clothes, too..."

Toboe looked at her from head to toe. She was wearing the exact same clothes he'd seen her wear the last time he had seen her. She didn't notice him gazing at her steadily and sniffed the air. The air in Ocean Terminal was slightly less polluted than Freeze City, which was a little refreshing.

"...But how will you go back into the city?" Toboe added.

Jia opened her mouth to reply, but found that no words came to her. She had no idea. However, she cleared her throat, and stood stiffly. Every time when Gehl was with her and she was in doubt, she would never let him know that she had no clue what to do. The same could be done for here, too. She said reassuringly, "I'll be fine. I can manage. I've always been by myself. I can do this on my own, too."

"T-then I'll come with you!"

"No, it's okay, Toboe. You should go home, go back to your family. It won't be safe."

"But I can get help!"

"...Help?"

Toboe nodded vigorously to convince her, "I...I got some friends. They're pretty cool. They might be able to help you and your father. I'm sure they'll help. I'll take you to them." He said, "Come with me."

As much as Jia did not like to accept help, maybe this time she could make an exception...


	5. Chapter 5

I'm gonna fast forward a lot of things; this chapter actually takes place during Episode 6, where Hige gets captured by Moss and the other wolves. Every time I write Tsume when he speaks, I thought about putting exclamation marks but then it makes him sound super excited when in fact he's angry, so I just left it out T.T"

**Warning:** Uh...OOC?

**...**

**Tsume**

**...**

Maybe this was a bad idea.

Toboe was bringing Jia back to see his 'friends'. How exactly were his friends supposed to help her? He brought her away from the market and to the outskirts of the city, past the dreary suburbs of Ocean Terminal, and towards the snowy landscape. As they trotted over the empty land, Toboe conversed cheerfully with her as though he was oblivious to their bleak surroundings as Jia took note of the dilapidated buildings.

"You'll like my friends; they're tough and strong! Oh, and they're super fast and..."

Jia nodded along as Toboe described his 'friends'. They sounded almost like superheroes as Toboe continued. But would they really help her? She had no money to hire mercenaries! "Hey, Toboe?" She began, a little tiredly. The chase, the long train journey and the long working hours really wore her out...

However, Toboe also appeared oblivious that his companion was beginning to lag a little behind, "Yeah?"

"...How old are you anyway?"

"I'm four years old!"

"Uh..._four_?"

"I-I mean, I'm fourteen, ehehe. How old are you?"

"I'm nineteen, almost twenty." Jia watched Toboe grin haplessly at her, before she asked, "Where's your family?"

"Family? Um, well, granny was my only family, but she passed away."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Toboe replied, "Where's _your_ family?"

"Well, you saw my dad back in the marketplace, and..." Jia hesitated briefly, then quietly uttered under her breath, "I had a brother, too. He was younger than you by two years."

"What happened to him? Why isn't he with you?"

"He's dead."

This would be the first time Jia was talking about Gehl's death to someone. It felt new yet terrible at the same time. She swallowed down the growing lump in her throat, before she hastily dabbed at the corner of her eyes. Now was not the right time to think about Gehl...dad was captured and taken away somewhere...Focus...

She knew that the conversation was getting uncomfortable and she was possibly placing Toboe in an awkward situation too, but Jia couldn't help herself. She couldn't stop herself. "His name was Gehl, and he-he looked a lot like you. At first, when I saw you, I thought you were him, but it couldn't be because you sound different and-and...Oh. Never mind. Sorry, I was...I've gone totally off topic. Sorry."

"It's okay." Toboe reassured her with a gentle smile. However, as they passed one of the walls, the boy suddenly gasped loudly, flung himself to crouch down on the ground, before he pulled Jia down with him.

"What is it, Toboe?" She hissed, shifting her eyes left and right, "More guards?"

Toboe peeped his head over the ledge of the wall, "No, they've got Hige!" He exclaimed, and Jia glanced over to see an orange three-wheeled truck that had stopped in front of a group of men who were standing around a triangular steel cage that contained a large furry creature inside.

"Who's Hige?" Jia asked. And why did that name sound so familiar?

They continued to watch as the truck doors opened and two men dressed in uniform popped out."Hey, caught one right off the bat, huh?" said one of the uniformed men, "And it's a big one, too."

From their hiding spot, Toboe and Jia could hear very well. The conversation continued.

"Nah, it's too wild. It'll be better to put it down."

Immediately, Toboe moved from his hiding place and sat back, slumped. "Oh no, what am I going to do? What am I gonna do?"

"Toboe? What's going on?" Jia asked as he began to hold his head in his hands and shake his head side to side, "What are they talking about?"

But Toboe had gotten up and was now beginning to run at a faster pace than previously. "Come on, we've not got any time to lose!"

"Toboe!" Jia trailed after him somewhat reluctantly, wondering why she was still following this boy as it seemed he clearly had a different priority now – however, when a small and rundown, stone shack loomed into view, Jia tilted her head curiously, "Toboe! Will you at least fill me in?" She then demanded exasperatedly, as Toboe rushed inside the shack without further ado. "Toboe?"

Her patience wearing thin, Jia stormed inside only to come face-to-face with...

"**You**?!"

Inside the shack, a familiar tall, tan male clad in a black leather outfit stood adjacently to Toboe, who was standing near a young male with shoulder-length, fuzzy brown hair. His eyes were the most brilliant shade of cerulean blue she had ever seen. The first thought that went through her mind was that they were all rather attractive young men. She had never really been around attractive people before, this was new. Jia ogled them warily. She recognised the fuzzy one. He looked even more fuzzier and dishevelled than he did back in Freeze City. His clothes were ripped and torn and his face was marred with bruises and cuts. She remembered the fuzzy one because he was with the yellow anorak-boy who she had bumped into accidentally in the streets a few days ago. Aha. No wonder the name 'Hige' sounded so familiar...

"Oh god, I should've known. You guys all know each other." Jia blurted out without a second thought.

The tall, tanned man stared at her with surprise that matched her own; however, his surprise quickly dissolved away and his expression turned stormy. "What the hell are you doing here?!" He snarled, with his silver eyebrows knitted together into a frown, "Have you been following us this whole time?!"

Before Jia could reply, Toboe spoke first, "No, Tsume, I brought her – "

Turning to the younger boy now, the silver-haired man then barked out, "Why did you bring a human here?"

"U-uh, I...I...Jia, she..." He seemed to have shrivelled under Tsume's venomous gaze.

As Toboe left his sentence trailing, a steely silence hung in the air until Jia growled out, "Toboe, these guys are the _friends _you were talking about?"

"Jia, they can help you. Tsume and Kiba are really strong and-and – "

However, Jia was suddenly shrieking, "Stay back!" and she quickly grabbed the closest object to her – which turned out to be a slab of blunt rock – and clutched it in her hand threateningly. "Stay back! All of you! Especially _you_!" The last remark was aimed at Tsume. "I have a **_rock _**here and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Tsume turned away, uninterested."Tch."

"Toboe, what's going on?" said the brown fuzzy one as he swerved his gaze away from the trembling female. His voice was calm and still, unlike Tsume, who seem to growl every syllable that escaped his mouth all the time. The fuzzy brown one sounded very cool and composed, which was nice for a change.

"Jia's father has been captured by guards - "

"And what's that got to do with us?" Tsume snarled at him, with a hand on one of the holsters of his belt, "If you haven't noticed, we're stuck in this stupid city with no food, no water, and that idiot standing over there even had to get himself into a fight and hold us back for another day. We don't need to put up with another troublesome pest. That's already your job."

Toboe's face was a little red, "Tsume, it's not like that!" He protested desperately, "She _really_ needs help!"

"That's enough." The fuzzy brown one (who was called Kiba) spoke again, and everyone craned their heads and averted their attention to him. It appeared he'd had enough of Tsume, Jia and Toboe shouting and overlapping each other. "Toboe. We have no business with humans. She has to leave."

Jia frowned stiffly at Fuzzy in response as she didn't exactly need anyone telling her to leave; she could already feel that she was not welcome, "I'll leave gladly!" She barked, as she shot Tsume a sour look. She backed out of the hut quickly, still clutching the rock in a threatening position. Despite the brief interchange, a dozen questions were buzzing through her mind. Why was her brother's murderer here? She thought he jumped to his death! She thought he was **_dead_**! How come he was alive and kicking, and in Ocean Terminal, no doubt?! Too many questions, so few answers... Jia clambered out as quickly as she could.

"Jia, wait! Don't go!" Toboe was sprinting after her, kicking up snow with his boots.

She turned to him, her fists clenched; however, she did not stop walking. In fact, she increased her pace to a faster rate, "That man in there. Tsume."

"...What about Tsume?"

"He...he..." When she looked into Toboe's eyes, something told her that she couldn't scream it to the heavens just yet. However, what she did do was raise her hand, before she unwrapped the bandages around her wrist, revealing a swollen gash, and immediately, Toboe winced slightly at the sight. Jia said, "He did this to me."

For a split second, Toboe's eyes widened in horror before he shook his head. "What? B-but why? No, Tsume wouldn't – "

"He hurt me, Toboe!" She exclaimed, before she hastily re-wrapped the dressing around her gash, "...Now do you understand?"

He didn't. "But...can't you all just sit down and talk about it?"

"No! Sitting down and talking about it won't change a damn thing!" She yelled, and when she saw Toboe's face beginning to crumble, Jia felt a stab of remorse. "Why...why do you want to help me so much anyway? I don't even know you but you keep talking as if you've met me before when I've never even seen you and-and..."

"You do know me! And I know you too. You helped me out once...so I want to repay you. W-whatever Tsume did to you, I'll apologise, I'll - "

"No, this is between me and him." She replied, and Toboe's expression drooped even more. As she contemplated the rest of his words, she didn't exactly understand what he had meant. This would be her first time meeting Toboe, "Have we met before?" She asked regardless.

"Yeah, I was the wo– "

"Toboe!" Kiba's voice echoed from the shack; his voice was stern yet harsh. He emerged in the doorway and gave Toboe one shake of his head and the younger of the trio looked down dejectedly.

"Sorry, Kiba." Toboe muttered.

Jia turned from Kiba, and to Toboe, then she sighed and gingerly placed a hand on his shoulder. "Listen. It's okay, Toboe. You don't need to explain anything. You've already done a lot for me. Thanks for offering to help me; it was really kind of you."

"Wait, Jia, don't go..." Toboe watched forlornly as Jia stormed away, returning to the city on her lonesome. On that day, she did the very same thing to him in the alleyway too. Again, he was powerless to stop her. When Toboe returned to the shack, Tsume's anger seemed to have simmered down. Toboe glanced from Kiba, then to Tsume, and down to the ground.

"...You're by yourself?" Kiba began, whilst Tsume was staring at Jia's retreating back.

The silver-haired man muttered, "Where's Porky anyway?"

Toboe gasped, realising that for the past five minutes, he'd been too engrossed with helping Jia out that he had almost forgotten about their other member of the pack. "That's just it!" Toboe exclaimed, "He got caught, in this really big trap! And-and then they took him away somewhere!"

**A few hours later...**

After they rescued Hige from becoming a beast of burden, the group returned to the shack where Cole had provided them with some more bread and a few slices of cold, cured meat to make up for what Moss and the others did to Hige. In the shack, Hige and Kiba sat around the basket of the small, menial but thoughtful gifts while Tsume sat outside, staring at the darkening sky. Toboe sat near the entrance, closest to Tsume, munching quietly on his own piece of bread.

The atmosphere was more than lively, of course, now that Hige had returned. "What? Toboe brought a chick here?" Hige spluttered in disbelief as he chewed noisily on his loaf, "And you told her to _leave_?"

"It was a human female." Kiba replied as he ate his own meal, "Not a wolf."

"Oh, I see." Hige said boredly, before he turned away to take a large bite off his bread again. Immediately, the interest was lost. "So, what now?"

"...I'm worried, can we at least check up on her?" Toboe asked, and Hige and Kiba turned to him expectantly. The boy threw them a meek glance in response. "...Can we?"

"You can go if ya want." Hige replied as he scratched at the back of his ear, "No-one's stopping you, but if you don't mind, I'll sit this one out... with this amount of food, it'll take a bit longer to settle in the stomach, hehe." He patted his stomach with a lazy grin on his face.

Toboe turned to Kiba, who gave him a brief nod. With silent permission granted from the unofficial alpha of the pack, the boy nodded in response with a smile. "Okay, I'll be back soon." He finished his loaf abruptly and dashed out of the hut, before turning to Tsume who had been quiet throughout the entire meal (then again, Tsume had always been quiet during meal times). "...Tsume, do you want to come?"

And Tsume glared at him from the corner of his eye. "_No_. Why the hell would I?"

"I thought you would've, since you have some kind of history with – "

"Whatever 'history' we have is none of your goddamn business!" Tsume barked at him viciously, and Toboe hurried away swiftly to avoid his heated wrath.

He watched Toboe head towards the direction of the city before glancing down at his share of food. He took a rough bite, chewing with the back of his fangs. It tasted awful. It was bland and dry. It was hardly appetizing and it was hardly fulfilling. This crap wouldn't last them three hours. This crappy human food was vile and useless. He needed meat. He wanted meat, not this trash from a can. He craved for a fresh, warm-blooded creature, to feel the thrill of the hunt and chase, to sink his fangs into flesh, to taste the blood dripping down his fangs...Even though those sloppy, greasy things the humans called 'burgers' were more appetizing than this. Maybe he could find something in the city...

He got up to stand, and then stretched his arm back and hurled his piece of bread over the horizon with a frustrated growl.

Abruptly, his action was met with a complaint from none other than Hige. "Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Hige yelped as he stuck his head out of the doorway of the shack, "Wastin' a good piece of bread like that! You're crazy!"

And immediately, Hige was hurrying after it while Kiba watched on wordlessly.

Tsume's fangs gnashed together into a feral snarl as he watched Hige run to the fallen piece of bread and pick it up before stuffing it into his mouth. He didn't think he could put with these two for too long, either. Watching the runt's retreating back, he slammed his hands into his pockets and found himself trailing after him.

Toboe sensed the extra presence and turned round. "Tsume?"

"Shut it." Tsume grunted, before Toboe could say anything else. "I'm not coming _with_ you. I'm taking a walk."

"Oh, okay, well...why don't we split up anyway? I'll go this way, and you go that way. We can cover more ground." Without another word, the younger wolf went his own way towards a lonely street. Tsume watched, before settling off on the designated path. Why did he even come? He didn't care about the girl. He could turn back right now...nothing was stopping him... However, Gehl's face suddenly flashed in his mind.

He was thoroughly reminded again of the incident of Freeze City, one that would possibly linger in his conscience forever.

...

Jia took a couple of hours trying to gather intel on her father's whereabouts. Eventually, her search led her to the city gates, where she could see a black van with barred windows at the rear doors parked near the toll gate where a man in the uniform of Black City was standing, chatting amiably at the tollguard behind the shutters. It was a van used for carrying prisoners!

She hurriedly tiptoed to the van without a second to waste. "Dad?" She hissed, "Dad...?"

Inside, she could hear a familiar voice, "Jia!"

A relieved smile crept on her face, "D-dad!" She exclaimed breathlessly, as Ged appeared at the barred windows, his old wrinkled hands curled around the bars. She heard the rustle of chains and gasped at the sight of handcuffs around his wrists. "Dad! What have they done to you? Where are they taking you?"

His poor face was battered and bruised; his cheeks were swollen and puffy, and there was a dark ring around one of his eyes, which was half-closed. A stream of dried blood was running down from his nostril and she felt sick to the stomach, knowing that they'd beaten up her father after the marketplace occurrence. "...Jia, what are you doing here?" He managed to croak out; his voice seemed dry and sore.

"I was looking for you." She replied, on the verge of tears, "What have they done?!"

He shook his head, "Don't worry about me. You need to get out of here. You have to go back to Freeze City. That Noble is hunting you down! He's alerted all the guards about you! He's not letting you go."

Her lip wobbled furiously in response, "But I can't leave you!" She cried, as she glanced helplessly at the chains around his wrists. "Why did they lock you up? It's me they want."

"...No, they're taking me to Black City." Ged replied, "I'm going to prison."

A silence filled the air.

"W...what?"came Jia's stunned response. She couldn't believe her ears. "...But why? You didn't do anything! I-I was the one who cut him with the knife - "

Ged said softly, "No, it was me. I confessed. I assaulted a Noble. The penalty is a life sentence. Jia, you will be safe."

She was shaking her head vigorously in disbelief. Panic was consuming her, and she was beginning to lose her self-control. "NO! You can't take my place! You can't take the blame for me! You can't!" Jia screamed loudly, and immediately, she saw the guard turning round. She gasped, as the guard began yelling as soon as he laid his eyes on her.

"Hey, you! What do you think you're doing?" He began to give chase, brandishing a baton and waving it in the air.

"Jia, get outta here! Go now!" Ged barked, shaking his chained hands at her, "Go!"

Instead, she grabbed at the bars with her own hands, "No, dad, I won't leave you – I won't! This is all my fault! This is all my doing; it has nothing to do with you...No! I-I'll get help. I'll get that detective – D-detective Lebowski, he can help!"

"No, he won't be able to help us!"

"But I can't let them take you away and – aargh!" She was cut off when she was seized by the collar of her parka and with an alarmed cry, Jia was suddenly hauled in the air and dragged away from the prisoner's van. Ged reached an arm tried to reach for them as well, but she was too far away. Whoever had grabbed her,had incredible speed and was running very fast... and as quickly as she was grabbed, she was dumped swiftly on the ground.

Her back collided with the cold, hard floor and she rolled backwards roughly. "Oof!"

"Get up."

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Jia then heard a grunt of annoyance and glanced around curiously, realising she was now in an empty alleyway, save for the tall figure who was standing directly in front of her. "...Tsume?"

"Tch." He grunted again as he put a hand to his hip, "That van belonged to Black City, you idiot. Whatever trouble your father's gotten himself into, he won't be getting out of it easily."

She gritted her teeth and her fists clinched, "I know that! It wasn't his fault! He's taking the blame for me!"

"For what?"

"For assaulting a Noble!"

A fine silver eyebrow rose. "You?" Tsume began, in a rather deadpan manner, "Assault a **_Noble_**? Yeah, right."

"Richter. It was Richter." Jia mumbled despondently, "...He...He...well, he was trying to...well, he grabbed me and I panicked and I..." Her stammering and spluttering was really starting to annoy him until she finished quietly, "I slashed him. With a knife."

Tsume watched her. The human looked frightened. He could smell fear dripping off her, which was new. Previously, and all he could sense was anger and hatred...now she seemed to have waned in will and determination. He wondered what might have made a human female so afraid of a human male, and from what she said, it sounded as though this 'Richter' had tried to make an unwanted advance on her. It was not so difference for wolves. If a female wolf had a mate, she would not like another wolf advancing on her, either. The female wolf would actually viciously attack the male.

"And now my father's taken my place for punishment. He's going to be jailed for life."

"Hmph. How fitting." He uttered. At least wolves didn't have stupid 'laws' like those.

Jia threw him a venomous look, "What are you doing here anyway," She spat, "And why did you – "

Again, she was cut off when Tsume suddenly turned away from her, facing the mouth of the alley. "Quiet!" He hissed, before he sheathed his blade. Jia watched nervously before her hand went to the back of her belt, her fingers dancing over the handle of her hunting knife. Abruptly, a group of men donned in Black City guard uniforms came rushing in to apprehend them.

"There they are!" They yelled, as they surrounded the duo with their own weapons drawn.

"Hold onto me." Tsume glanced at her from the corner of his eye and growled lowly.

"Wha - "

"Just do it!"

He moved towards her and she instinctively backed away but when the guards advanced on them, Tsume hauled her up and over his shoulder, her arms dangling over his back, and although he rolled her eyes at her slant grip, he leapt off the ground and into the air, taking Jia with him; she clutched onto him for dear life as they rose a couple of feet off the ground. "Uwaaaaghhhh!"

As the guards stared at their dazzling escape in a mixture of shock and awe, Tsume kicked off from the closest wall of a building to them and to the next, still with Jia clinging to him with her eyes squeezed shut as they reached the roof of a five storey building in seconds. Once he landed on flat ground, Jia opened one eye meekly as Tsume began his hurried escape, sprinting across the rooftop. They reached the edge, and Jia wondered briefly if he was going to jump - he did - and as she screamed, they zoomed through the air and Jia glanced down, catching a birds-eye glimpse of the ground below. They were very high up...She became dizzy again. And after what felt like an eternity, Jia suddenly felt Tsume's rough, calloused hand on hers shaking her shoulder.

She looked up, "...H-huh?"

"Let go."

Jia gasped, realising that they were back on ground (in another alleyway), and considerably a distance away from their pursuers; her hands were also fisting the back of his leather jacket so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. "O-oh..." She croaked, as she let go. Tsume dropped her and adjusted his jacket accordingly. "H-How did you do that...? You're so fast..."

Her compliment actually brought a smirk to his lips, "You're just too damn slow."

When she glanced over at him, he was watching her too. "...What?"

"Were you comfortable?" He sneered at her, and she wanted to drive her clenched fist into that smug face of his.

"Shut up." She mumbled. "Leave me alone."

"If you didn't notice, I just saved your sorry, pathetic ass."

"I didn't ask you to."

"Well then, maybe I'll just let them arrest you and you can join your father in prison."

She thought she could handle his jibing, stabbing taunts but the last one crossed the line, and with a fierce "_Shut up_!" Jia shoved him away from her with all her strength but then she too, went stumbling backwards from the recoil, and she tripped over her own feet, falling gracelessly on her butt. Tsume stared down at her as she lay there on the ground, crumpled and defeated. Before long, she sniffled. She sniffled louder. And louder.

He didn't need to see her turn on the waterworks on so he turned away from her and began to leave the alley until -

"Where do you think you're going?!" The human female was yelling, "Why did you kill Gehl?"

Urgh.  
Not this again.

But he knew that he would have to answer to her some time or later.

"Don't just look at me like that, tell me!"

There was a silence.

"Well?"

A few seconds passed, and he faced her fully.  
She was waiting.

Eventually, he said, "He fell."

He wasn't sure why he told her, as he didn't think it would help ease the situation nor would it settle the fiery hatred between them both. A stony silence spawned between them, until Jia's mouth went slack, "...I...I don't believe you." She finally croaked out.

He frowned. "You can believe whatever you want."

"I don't believe you!" She cried louder, "He was just a kid! He had hopes, he had dreams! He was good! He was my brother! He would never associate himself with the likes of you! You...you _threatened_ him to join you, didn't you?! You must have...you must have done...you done **_something_**!"

The girl was seriously pissing him off in all possible ways. Tsume felt all his anger screaming into life and Jia found her back slammed against the wall. "Will you shut up!" He snarled as he restrained her, "Your brother joined us willingly – "

But she was throwing her clenched fists against his chest, beating him, although ineffectively. It didn't hurt at all. However, to even think that he was allowing a human female to hit him like this was beyond him. And now she was screaming, even though she knew very well that Tsume could rear his ugly side any minute and kill her too. Maybe that was what she wanted. "Why don't you kill me too and finish the job?!" She yelled, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Don't tempt me, cos you're really starting to piss me off!"

"Just do it!" She screamed, and he shoved her back against the wall with all his might before moving his grip over the front of her neck, choking her. Of course, the weak human eyes would only see a hand crushed over the throat, and not a wolf's paw. She was struggling helplessly under his strength, hacking and spluttering as the grip on her throat closed down on her, and all she could choke out was, "Go on... Kill me, right here and now..."

"And what about your father?"

Almost abruptly, she stopped struggling under him.

"If you die, then what will happen to your father?" He said, and when she fell silent, he frowned. "On your own, you're nothing but a coward. You're weak, useless and helpless. How pathetic."

"D-don't talk as if you know me... You have no idea what I've been through...You know nothing...!" She croaked out, and he finally let go, letting her drop to the floor. Tsume stared down at her as she lay there on the ground, before gradually, she began to weep. She was a lost cause.

The girl was a mess.  
She was falling apart.

"...It's not fair," She sobbed, "A murderer like you is still walking around the streets, but my dad is going to be jailed for life...My dad didn't even do anything wrong. It's not fair...What's wrong with this world...?"

He didn't realise how weak and fragile humans really were. Watching the girl sob stirred something inside him. Maybe the feeling he was experiencing was pity. No...it felt more than that. What was he supposed to do anyway? The girl had pinned him down for the murder of her brother... With little option, Tsume turned away from the crying girl and made his way towards the exit of the alley once again. Her harrowing sobs followed him, but he was unmoved. Whilst he couldn't save her brother or her father, he'd saved her.

A life for a life.

It was enough...right?

* * *

**Notes:**

**1.** When Toboe says he is only 4 yrs old, this is because I researched some stuff about wolves, and although Kiba etc are obviously not normal wolves, the average lifespan of a wolf is about 6-8 years.

**2.** Finally, to celebrate Chapter 5, I'm going to put up the profiles of Ged and Jia although there really is more to them that what I've written below:

**Name:** Ged  
**Age:** About 60

Ged is an ex-guard from Black City. After he injured his leg, he retired and relocated to Freeze City to work as a peddler, selling second hand junk. He is grumpy, grouchy and lives life full of discipline and caution. However, he cares deeply for his foster children and was saddened by Gehl's death. He takes Jia's place and will be sent to Black City prison to serve a life sentence.

**Name:** Jia  
**Age:** 19

Her real name is Gayna, and she is illiterate because she never had a proper education; instead she was taught various survival skills. Due to her strict upbringing from Ged, Jia considers herself thick-skinned, selfless and independent, although when angry or threatened, her first instincts usually lead to violent outcomes. When she finds herself completely alone after Gehl's death and Ged's arrest, her tough exterior wears away and she breaks down.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys, thanks for the reviews; I really enjoyed writing this chapter but in general it's really tough writing a story that is based off the episodes of an anime. I was trying to write the next chapter and there is so much talking a conversation actually takes up an entire page on my MS Word document. Anyway, this is a chapter which isn't based on any episode, but it does take place in between Episodes 6 and 7.

Enjoy ~

**...**

**Wolves**

**...**

Zali had taken them to the tunnel where the poisonous gases from all those years ago killed most of his pack. However, that was many years ago. The tunnel that led out of Ocean Terminal was now deemed safe. It was dark and dank, but there was no more poisonous gas as it had evaporated away into the atmosphere. As they stared into the dark depths, wondering if that was truly the road leading to Paradise, Kiba headed off first, and he was shortly followed by the others. Tsume was last, of course. He still couldn't believe he had spewed that speech about Paradise even though he was the least likely one to believe in it. Now Hige and Toboe would probably never let him live it down.

As they ran, Hige suddenly sniffed the air, and stopped. "Hey, guys...?"

"What is it?"

The rest of the pack stopped in their tracks too and turned to the semi-large wolf. Hige had caught a whiff of something, and out of the group, his nose was the most efficient, whether it was to find food or detecting close enemies. He sniffed the tunnel air once again, then his facial expression scrunched up. "Looks like we got company." He muttered, and he jabbed his finger behind his shoulder, gesturing to the tunnel path behind them.

"I don't see anything..." Toboe murmured in response.

Whilst Toboe glanced around curiously, Kiba's eyes narrowed and he stepped forwards in front of the pack, "Come out. We know you're there."

A few seconds passed, then slowly, there was a rustle, and a familiar girl shuffled out from one of the large rocks in the tunnel. She had a small duffel bag and a shotgun strapped to her back. The wolves landed their gazes on the shotgun but felt no animosity towards it and instead, averted their attention back to the girl, who was watching them with her hands bunched at her sides, as though she was tense. She looked somewhat lost and confused, and she swallowed down nervously. "Uh...hi."

"Jia?!" Toboe exclaimed excitedly, whilst Tsume's expression darkened at her presence.

"Why were you following us?" Kiba asked, and Jia turned to him directly, chewing at the inner corners of her mouth worriedly. "...What about your father?"

"He's been taken to Black City. This is another way...a quicker way, to Black City." She replied glumly, "Can I...can I come with you...?"

"Huh? Why?" Hige asked, as Kiba watched her solemnly.

"I can't take public transport. Richter's got me marked down. There will be guards at every station, looking for me." Jia added, "Where are you guys going anyway?"

A brief silence spawned between them. Hige glanced to Kiba, then to Toboe, and Tsume. In response, the other two wolves threw their gazes to Kiba, too. What would he say? They were in the presence of a human, no doubt.

And Kiba said, "To Paradise."

The rest of the wolves stared at Kiba in slight shock. Hige's jaw almost dropped open while Tsume and Toboe stared on in stunned silence. However, Kiba did not acknowledge their reactions. Instead, he remained composed and collected.

"...Paradise?"

He nodded. "There is no place in Paradise for humans." He replied, "For your own good, you should go back."

She shook her head. "A-are you trying to tell me that...you're..._wolves_?" Her voice was wobbling, "All of you?"

"...Yeah."

"But you look - "

"It's an illusion."

Jia took a step backwards as she tried to search for any hint in Kiba's eyes, but there was none. The guy was sombre. The guy was solemn. The guy was...serious. This was no joke... something in the pit of her gut told her threw her gaze down to the ground - it was then she noticed that the muddy ground was in fact, littered with paw prints. There was only one set of human footprints in the mud. Hers. She gasped in horror at the sight and hopped away. "T-that's impossible..."

"Nothing is impossible." uttered Kiba, before he turned away from her, having decided that he'd told her everything she needed to know, "Let's go."

Jia craned her head back up and watched the rest of the wolves turn away from her and continue down their path out of the tunnel. Toboe was the most reluctant and she gazed at him dejectedly. "Wait, Toboe! You're a wolf, too?"

"I wanted to tell you." He replied, scratching at his elbow with one hand, "...Are you scared?"

A few seconds passed, and when she still said nothing, Toboe looked down and quickly turned away. "...Goodbye." He muttered, before he began to follow the rest of his pack, leaving Jia standing in the tunnel, alone.

...

Hige sniffed the air again.

"Uh...guys?"

Now that one distraction had been dealt with, there was another. It had been a few hours since they left the tunnel; they were now in the wilderness, trekking through empty, dry plains, battling the bitter wind that was blowing sand in their eyes. The horizon was very...brown, and gray. There was no sight of any living creature anywhere; instead, all they saw were the bones of unknown large creatures sticking out of the fractured ground and the dilapidated ruins of abandoned buildings. Up ahead, was a large expanse of thick, dense woodland that led to the mountains. Whilst everyone enquired if it was safe for Jia to learn about their real identities, Kiba assured them that he believed the girl would not expose their identities.

"What is it now, Hige?" Kiba questioned, and Hige pointed behind himself once more tiredly.

He said with a sigh, "She's still here."

"Even though she knows that we're wolves?" Toboe asked; he had sounded slightly hopeful.

"That can't be right," Tsume replied with a growl, "We've been travelling for hours. How on earth could she keep up – "

He stopped when he saw a figure plodding its way across the rough terrain slowly. The figure looked very familiar. In fact, he realised it was indeed Gehl's sister with a scarf wrapped around her mouth and most of her head, with goggles to protect her eyes. She looked a bit like a nomad, and she also looked like she was in a lot of agony. Her knees were shaking as she moved one leg forwards, then the other, as though every movement was a strain on her body. Her goggles were steaming up, and tufts of dirty blonde hair that looked matted were plastered and stuck to the sides of her temples. Her shotgun was slung around her back, jiggling slightly with each step she took. While Hige watched her with slight amusement, Tsume and Kiba stared on indifferently.

"Haha, look at the puny human trying to keep up with us." Hige chortled, grinning slightly.

"...Jia doesn't look too good." Toboe pointed out anxiously, "Maybe we should wait for her to catch up."

"Leave her." Tsume replied. "We don't need to carry more deadweight."

"But she'll die!"

"Hey, she's the one who's following us in the first place. No-one told her to." Tsume quipped back at the younger wolf.

Frowning, Toboe turned to Kiba next for support. "Kiba, can we find someplace to rest? We **_have _**been going on for a long time now..."

"...Actually, the runt makes a good point...and I'm kinda hungry, too." Hige whined slightly as he rubbed at his tummy.

Tsume snarled at Hige in return, "You're always hungry, Porky. When are you ever NOT hungry?"

"For the last time, I'm big-boned, so will ya stop calling me 'Porky'?!"

As the trio bickered, Kiba was watching the girl make her way slowly towards them, then he averted his gaze up to the sky. "It's getting dark," He murmured, "Let's rest."

"Alright!" Toboe and Hige cheered, while Tsume frowned deeply.

Toboe and Hige eagerly found a small cave nearby and cleared it of overgrown bushes and driftwood; once they were done, they immediately rushed inside, while Tsume and Kiba followed after at their own pace. They sat in a close circle, since the cave was a little too small to permit any other elbow space. Tsume scoffed and sat the furthest he could at the edge of the cave, away from the group. Meanwhile, Toboe crawled back towards the entrance and poked his head out.

"Hey...where's Jia? How come she's not here yet?" He gazed over the barren landscape to see a figure lying on the ground. No doubt, it was Jia. "Uwaghh!" He cried, and immediately, he rushed out of the cave and out of sight.

"Runt, where are you going?" Hige called after him, before an annoyed noise escaped the back of his throat. He glanced at Kiba, who stared back at him emotionlessly in response. Aside from that particular action, Kiba did nothing else but Hige already knew what he wanted him to do. "…Alright, fine, I'll go after him. Urhh...why does the runt have to be so annoying...?"

Digging his hands into his pockets, Hige trailed after Toboe, and arrived at the fallen Jia. Toboe was already by her side and on his knees, inspecting her worriedly. Hige joined him, and together, they crowded round her, squatting down on their haunches. The girl was sprawled over the ground, her head turned to the side. They pulled off her goggles and pulled down the scarf from her mouth. Her mouth was half-open, her eyes closed. Hige prodded at her face with one paw.

"...Is she dead, Hige?"

"I don't think so," Hige replied, "She's still breathing."

"Then… is she sleeping?" Toboe proceeded to ask, as he reached over to one of her closed eyelids and pulled them apart, revealing her eyeball...but aside from that, there was no response even when he leaned closer. "Nope, she can't be, if her eyes are open."

"I don't think she's sleeping, either." He lifted a strand of her hair from her ear and yelled, "HELLO? ANYONE IN THERE?"

He was immediately batted away by a foot on his side, sending him spiralling to the left. "Move aside, Porky." growled a low voice, "Can't you tell she's passed out?"

Whilst Hige rolled back up with a scowl, Toboe looked up to see Tsume standing behind them with his hands in his pockets, staring down at them, irritated.

"Passed out?" Toboe gingerly put a finger to his chin as though deep in thought, but then he grinned, "Oh yeah, Tsume, you've hung around with humans before! You know what to do!" He scurried away to let Tsume come closer to Jia.

However, he merely walked over and gave her body a rough nudge with his foot. "Get up." The foot then hovered above her head, and landed on her face, his shoe mushing against her cheek.

"Hey...he's just doing what I was doing a minute ago." Hige pointed out with a frown, "Minus the foot, of course."

Toboe's lips went slant into a pout, "...She's not listening to you, Tsume."

"Shut up!" Tsume barked at Toboe, before he threw his gaze down to the girl again, "_Get up_!" But there was no response. He smushed her cheek enough that his foot went to her lips, pushing them down that they were almost touching the ground, and when he removed his foot, he saw a thin stream of saliva dripping off it.

"Haha, Tsume, you contracted some human goo." Hige commented, while Tsume gawped at his paw in disgust.

"Move." He then grunted, and both Toboe and Hige quickly shuffled to the side to allow more space for him, and Tsume squatted down and drove his clinched fist into her side. It looked painful, and Toboe and Hige winced inwardly. "Get up!" He tried again.

After a few seconds, she stirred slightly eliciting a gasp of delight from Toboe and Hige. Jia groaned loudly, opened one eye meekly and strained to get up, but then she flopped back over the side again with a weak cry of 'urgh!'. Her eyes slammed closed again.

"Well, that didn't work as well as we hoped." Hige said glumly as his shoulders slumped together in defeat.

Tsume's fist curled into a tight ball once more. "Then I'll just have to hit her harder."

"Nooo! Maybe we should just bring her to the cave!" Toboe suggested quickly. "She must be exhausted."

"No way, she'll stink up the place." Hige said crossly, holding at his nose.

"But we can't just leave her here…she'll die."

Tsume grinned in response, "Let her die. There's plenty more from where she came from, anyway."

Toboe frowned at them both deeply, before he moved to Jia's legs and grabbed them. "I'll bring her in myself." With that, Toboe began to drag Jia over the ground, with little luck as he only managed to drag her an inch from her spot.

Hige had to contain his snorts and sniggers in, before Toboe pouted again. Eventually, Hige made an irritated scoff and scratched at the back of his head, then got up and off the ground, dusted his sweats and then moved to grab Jia's arms. "…Here, I'll lend you a hand."

Toboe smiled, "Thank you, Hige."

A few minutes later, and Jia was carried in and dumped face-flat on the cave floor. Her shotgun, goggles and scarf were dumped beside her, too. Kiba, Hige, Toboe and Tsume stood around her in a circle as though expecting her to wake up, but she did not move, or make a noise.

"She's got a gun." Hige pointed out, gesturing to the long-range firearm.

"Yes, we can see that." Kiba said flatly.

"…Do you think she's dangerous?"

Toboe stepped forwards in her defense and held his arms out, "No, of course not! Jia's not dangerous at all! She was kind to me and-and-…"

Hige pushed him aside by planting a hand on his face and gently forcing him backwards, "What's your deal anyway? You never did tell us how you know her." He said, as he sauntered over to sit cross-legged beside the fallen girl.

Toboe brushed his hair from his face and tidied himself, then threw a sour look aimed at Hige. "Jia fed me. And even when Kiba told her that we were wolves…she didn't scream or throw something at me."

"Is that it? Big deal."

"...Well, most humans I've met have just hurled things at me and called me all sorts of horrible stuff…." He mumbled dejectedly, kicking at a stone in his path.

"Hn." Hige inched forwards and bent down to sniff her. "Bleurgh...why does she smell so bad anyway?"

"All humans smell bad, dimwit." came Tsume's snide reply, before he went to his own dark corner in the cave and lay down with his hands resting behind his head.

Hige moved away and concentrated on the duffel bag she'd brought with her, "Let's look in her bag." He said gleefully, and he opened it without further ado, pulling the drawstrings apart. He turned the old, flimsy bag upside down and out popped a small bag of cash, a can opener, three cans of baked beans, a box containing a few shotgun shells and another small bag, this time, with the word '_TAMPOHNNS_' scribbled on it in a dark inky substance. Hige opened the bag and found two white pieces of rolled cotton.

"What's this?" He gave it a sniff and his nose scrunched up, "Eww...it smells kinda like fish."

"Don't touch that." came Tsume's growl of a reply. "It's not for you, Porky."

"Then who is it for?"

"That damn female; otherwise, why would she be carrying it?"

"And how'd you know it's for her though?"

"I just do."

"Yeah, but how?"

When Tsume snarled at him with no intent to reply to that question, Hige snorted at him in return, "Fine then, be that way. I wonder what these are for anyway." He returned them into the bag of 'tahmponns' and then delved into the rest of her rucksack, pulling out a bottle of murky water (with strange floaty bits inside). "Alright! Water!" He cheered, and he hurriedly gnawed the cap off and downed a few gulps.

"Hige, stop going through Jia's things!" Toboe exclaimed as he watched the cans of baked beans rolling away on the ground.

"Quiet, runt. I'm thirsty here." Hige retorted, and Toboe immediately crouched down to gather the items and put them back into the bag. "You should have some too."

"No thanks..."

Once Hige had drank his fill, leaving the bottle almost empty, he made a satisfied 'ahhh!' and glanced up at Kiba and Toboe, "Okay...So now what?"

"We sleep." Kiba said, and he moved forwards beside Jia, and lay down.

"...Seriously?" Hige spluttered, but when Toboe did the same, curling up near Jia's feet, he sighed and lay down himself, before trying to make himself comfortable. The smell of the human female was a little bearable once they got used to it... and the cave was too small so they had to lie close to the human. Hige yawned loudly, and sighed again. "Oh well, g'night everyone."

...

Jia awoke as soon as she heard a loud snort-like noise.

At first, she thought she was hearing things, but it sounded very real, and very masculine. She also felt warm and stuffy. The surface she was lying on was dry, brittle, cold and hard, and she briefly remembered that she had been following Toboe and his friends before her eyes closed and her knees gave way.

She could hear someone's heavy breathing beside her too, and Jia stayed stiff and limp in her spot before shakily glancing to her left where she saw a magnificent white wolf lying beside her, and her eyes widened. However, when she blinked out of reflex, the fuzzy brown-haired guy called Kiba who had told her they were looking Paradise and that they were wolves, was suddenly lying where the white wolf had been.

She stared wide-eyed at his sleeping form in the darkness, then she hurriedly rubbed at her eyes. Nope, no wolf. It was Kiba, lying on his side away from her. But she swore she just saw a white wolf. She remembered Kiba mentioned something about illusions. Did he mean that...they had donned a human disguise?

_So...they...really **are **wolves..._

Jia rolled back onto her back, staring at the roof of the dark cave, alarmed. Surprisingly enough, she was terrified. She was with wolves. She was with a pack of wolves. A pack of wild animals.

_Wolves._

Actual, real wolves...in the flesh!

Question marks were practically buzzing from her head. How could they don a human disguise? Were they magical wolves? Did they use the lost art of alchemy? Where did they even come from? How could they speak human language? How long had they been disguising themselves? If they were wolves, were there more out there? She didn't understand. But all she knew was that wolves had been believed to be extinct for two hundred years...and she had desperately wanted to at least see one in her entire life...now she was bunking with them...but wait! A sense of fear and dread overcame her.

They were still wild animals...would they...would they _attack_ her?

But if that was the case...why were they surrounding her like this, and sleeping? The only exception was Tsume, who had moved to one of the corners, near the mouth of the cave, to sleep. He was silent as he slept. As noted, Kiba was on her left with his back to her. He was silent, too. However, even then she thought Kiba was still too close to for comfort. She got up ever-so-slightly, lifting her back off the ground with her elbows to see Toboe lying at her feet, curled up like a cat, sleeping soundly. Aw, how cute, she thought. He looked so helpless but at ease.

The other guy...no, wolf – the one she thought was called Hige – his butt was right in front of her face should she decide to turn to the right. He was snoring loudly, his chest rising up and down raggedly with each powerful inhale and exhale. Then she heard him whining. The whining was very high-pitched, and there was a rustling noise – he was pawing at the ground – then he went still...and it was back to the snoring.

Jia blinked numbly in the darkness, listening to the howling wind outside and the snores of Hige, before she ultimately lowered herself back down the ground. She curled up herself and rolled to the side, to Kiba's side (since Hige's side was rather unappealing), clutching her hands to herself.

This was a very new, strange yet exciting experience...


	7. Chapter 7

Hello readers, it's the 7th chapter :) and this correlates to Episode 7 too. It's really hard trying to put down EVERYTHING that happens in episodes on story form so I've been trying to add some extra things too. You'll know what the new things are because they revolve around Jia but... yeah TT_TT Anyway, they aren't that nice to Jia in this chapter too lol.

**...**

**Flower Maiden**

**...**

Tsume heard the sound of a gun cocking and immediately sprang awake, bolting upright in his spot with caution. He was greeted with the sight of the human female, who was loading her gun with the shells she had brought with her. She heard him wake up too, and threw a quick glance to him across the cave. At her feet, the runt of the pack was still curled up and fast asleep, with a little smile on his face. Porky was still snoring away. Kiba was nowhere to be seen.

She stared at him for a long time, expectantly.

"What the hell are you looking at?" He growled out, and finally, the blasted smelly human turned away to face her gun.

"...You were whining," She said flatly, "In your sleep."

He had the urge to rip her lips off her face. "Tch." He grunted, but he ultimately found that he had nothing to retort back.

"So," She began, and he glowered at her silently for he had no desire to carry a conversation with her, "You're a wolf."

There was a silence. Since Kiba had already told her, he figured there would be no point in denying it. "Yeah, so?"

She glanced down, at her gun, which she had now placed gingerly across her lap. She took a deep breath, then sighed, "I didn't think I'd be actually talking to one. It's kind of refreshing."

"Good for you." He remarked with a sneer, before he got up to stand. He sauntered out of the cave to see Kiba sitting outside, staring at the bleak landscape that lay ahead of them, waiting to be tackled. "What the hell was going through your mind when you allowed her to stay with us?"

Kiba looked up at the dark gray wolf, then settled his gaze on the horizon once again. "She's heading to Black City, she's not staying with us."

"What do you call that in there then?" Tsume barked at him furiously, pointing to the inside of cave.

And from the cave, they could her shouting back, "I can hear you, you know!"

There was a loud snort before Hige rolled back to sit up, scratching at the back of his ear with his leg, "Urhh...what's with all the yelling? I was having such a good dream too." He moaned blearily, having woken up from the loud shouting that was taking place. Toboe was beginning to stir too, and with a loud yawn, the little one got up, rubbing at his eyes.

"Morning already?"

"Let's go." Kiba announced, and the two newly-awoken wolves blinked at him in shock.

"We just woke up!" Hige snorted, "Gimme a break, Kiba! I haven't even eaten anything yet."

Kiba shook his head in disapproval, "We can't afford to waste any time." He stood up abruptly and began to leave the cave entrance, all the while Tsume, Hige, Toboe and Jia stared at his retreating back from inside.

"Is he serious?" Hige demanded, before he got up to stretch. "Fine...come on, let's go. There's no use defying that guy."

Tsume was already moving, too. Toboe nodded and began to leave the cave, trailing after Hige rather tiredly. Jia immediately gathered her bag and followed the group out of the cave; she threw a quick glance over her shoulder to the cave then back towards the front. She wondered when the next opportunity to come across shelter like that would pass by. She didn't even know why they were all listening to Kiba, but all in all, she figured he was the leader. Her slow pace was also worrying her a little. Kiba was already very far ahead. Tsume was only a little behind. Even Toboe was further away from than she had imagined. "Jia, c'mon! Let's go." Toboe called to her, and she nodded in response, then jogged up to reach them.

Roughly three hours later, they left the desolate land and up ahead loomed a fine forest, with thick trees and deep, dark shrubbery. They made their way towards the forest and as usual, Kiba was at the very front, while Tsume was a little behind him. Hige was also closest to the two, while Toboe and Jia were last. The journey was silent. Nobody was really talking to each other.

Although Toboe was with her, she knew he could move a lot quicker, but he was only going slowly because she couldn't keep up. Her feet were beginning to hurt; the flat heels of her boots were killing her with each step, sending shooting pains through her feet. They'd been travelling for a long time. She didn't think she could do this for any longer. She'd eaten a small portion of her dry rations but her growling stomach was forcing her to want more of her limited food. And with no thanks to Hige, half of her water was gone and there was no way in hell they would miraculously find water here. It didn't feel like a good place to make camp though, not that she believed Kiba would allow any more pitstops anyway. Her shotgun and hunting knife were in an easily accessible position should they encounter anything hostile, but seeing how calm Kiba and the others were, she probably didn't have anything to fear.

"Sooo..." Hige drawled, as he suddenly reduced his pace to match Jia's. He dug his hands into his pockets as he waddled beside her, taking one stride at a time at a leisurely pace, "I don't think I introduced myself properly. I'm Hige."

"Jia." She replied.

"I remember you from Freeze City."

"Yeah, I remember you too."

"It's funny, huh? Like how I saw you, and you saw us and now we're walking together."

"Yeah."

"You're heading to Black City, right?"

"Yep."

Hige watched her for a few more seconds until he pointed out, "Geez, you're not very talkative, are you? Lighten up."

Lighten up? She didn't really have any reason to, and she turned to him fully. At first, she had wanted to say something cheeky in respond to that, but when she contemplated Hige's words again, she realised he was just trying to get to know her. "...I..." She began, before she threw her gaze to the floor, "Things are a bit complicated right now, Hige."

Hige grinned weakly at her in response, "Well, yeah, I mean, you're bunking with us. How come you're not...I dunno, freaking out?"

Jia's expression dulled and she shrugged her shoulder up to stop her bag from falling off, "I guess nothing really surprises me anymore. It's just as Kiba said, nothing is impossible."

"Nothing that guy says really makes a lotta sense, ya know."

"But you're all following him."

"Eh, don't remind me."

"By the way...what kind of wolf are you?"

Hige's grin widened, "Me? I dunno, I'm a wolf. I'm brown and furry."

Jia assumed the wolves wouldn't exactly know the scientific name humans had given to determine the different type of species of wolf. "What about Toboe?"

"He's the kind of wolf that's small, brown and furry."

"Kiba?"

"He's a white wolf."

Jia then asked, "And what about Tsume?"

"He's a dark gray-ish color. It suits him."

She laughed, and suddenly, she halted in her tracks. "Wait!" She said loudly and the wolves stopped and turned to her, much to her surprise, because she didn't think they would. She blinked at each of them wordlessly and they responded to her with an equal blank stare, although Tsume was glaring at her (no surprises there). "I...um..." She was beginning to wiggle and hop around on one foot. "I-I need the bathroom. W-will you guys wait for me?" She fumbled with her words, her cheeks were reddening.

"Bathroom?" Hige and Toboe asked in unison, before Tsume sighed impatiently.

"You gotta be kidding me." He grunted under his breath, before he barked, "You just decided that you 'needed the bathroom' now?!"

Jia frowned at him in return, "No, I'd been holding it in for some time but now I really need to go! It's not my fault! D-don't worry, I'll be two seconds."

Kiba narrowed his eyes at her, "We can't afford to – "

"Two seconds!" She begged, "Please?"

But Kiba was dissuaded, "...If you can't keep up, then don't come along." Without another word, he turned away and continued. Tsume followed, and before long, Hige hurried after them too, shrugging.

Jia watched them miserably until she noticed Toboe hadn't moved from her side yet. "Toboe, you should go. Don't get left behind because of me. I'll catch up with you guys later."

He looked astonished she'd said that, and he squeaked out, "...Will you be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I got my gun, my knife...I'll be fine. You should go."

"O-okay...be careful."

She smiled, before she ruffled her hand through his hair, making him chuckle. "Will do. See you in a couple of seconds."

"Come on, runt! Get a move on or we'll leave ya behind!" Hige yelled, and Toboe quickened his pace, throwing a concerned glance over his shoulder to where Jia was. She rapidly made her way to the bushes and soon disappeared from view.

As soon as he arrived at Hige's side, he said, "Hey...doesn't this forest seem kinda strange to you? There aren't any animals around."

"Tell me sumthin'...you do know that you're a wolf, right?" Hige said derisively, "Think about it, genius, they probably ran off when they saw us coming."

"Oh...of course."

"This is the problem with taking city kids to the woods."

"I was thinking...I haven't smelled the flower at all since we left that cave. I wonder if this is really the right way..."

His question sparked an interesting query and the rest of the wolves began to ponder. However, Kiba did not turn to them as expected, to give them some kind of indication that they were going the right way, and Tsume, on the behalf of almost everyone, said, "You wanna give us a clue here?"

"Sure." was Kiba's one-word reply.

"Where exactly are we headed?"

"To Paradise."

"And just what in the hell is guiding you there?"

"I'm going on instinct."

As Kiba continued, the trio stopped, and Hige lowered his head; with a sigh, he said, "Here we go again...I just wish it felt like we were getting closer...not that I'm complainin' or anything." However, Kiba did not respond, and instead, he hesitated, his attention now fixated at the sky. There was a bizarre ringing noise emitting that was now echoing around the forest. The noise made them all look up at the greying sky, but they could not see anything.

"That noise..." Tsume began.

"It's an airship." Hige replied, "It must be one of the Nobles."

"Urgh, I hate that sound..." said Toboe, clutching at his ears.

Suddenly, there was a rustle from one of the trees beside Toboe and out popped Jia. "I'm back!" She exclaimed; however, she was met with silence. "What'd I miss?" Jia blinked numbly at the wolves as they were now engrossed in staring upwards. "...What is it? What's everyone looking at?" In seconds, there was a loud explosion that made the ground rock and up ahead, was an array of bright, multicoloured lights that undoubtedly belonged to an airship. The explosion was enough to make everyone tumble; Jia's weakened feet lurched forwards and she found herself about to topple over until she accidentally bumped into Tsume who in return glared at her as soon as she came into contact with him. With a gasp, she peeled away from him as quickly as possible.

"Watch it." He grunted, while Toboe was clutching onto Hige for support.

"Arghh! What's going on?" The younger wolf yelped.

"Man, they're really going at it."

Kiba was the only one unaffected from the explosion that almost knocked everyone off their balance. "...She's there." He uttered, as though in a trance and he began to make his way towards the explosion.

Tsume was the first to respond to his action, "Hold it. It's nothing to do with us. Stay out of it."

But Kiba was still moving forwards, "I can feel it."

"Feel what?"

"I'm not sure...but it's so familiar..." Kiba murmured, before he turned to the rest of the group, clearly a little frustrated at their lack of reaction, "Come on, don't you guys feel anything at all?"

"Kiba!" Tsume yelled after him as he took off, but he was ignored.

_Hmm, doesn't seem like they're very friendly with each other after all. _Jia thought to herself, as Toboe meekly asked Hige if he could feel anything. All Hige responded was with a 'that guy is hopeless...'. However, the trio of wolves followed after him, and Jia was left alone. "Wait, where are you guys all going? Why are you going towards the explosion? It's not safe. We should be going around it, to avoid the Nobles. Guys...?" She was ignored, too. Honestly, she had been feeling invisible and ignored for a long time, but there was little she could do, since they were all wolves and she was the only human in the group.

She hurried after them, but the distance between the explosion and where they were right now was further than she expected. Breathless, and on the verge of throwing up, she felt her legs about to give way and she came to a skidding halt, having to hold onto a tree trunk for support. She felt her stomach curl into a tight knot, and turning to the side, she was about to vomit but forced herself to hold it in, to keep it together. Her feet felt like they were on fire now. So did her chest, her lungs, her stomach. Another step and she might actually fall apart. Looking up, she realised Toboe and Hige were too far away to notice the lack of a human member.

Jia watched helplessly as the rest of the wolves sprinted through the forest. There was no way in hell she could keep up. What was she thinking? She should've just taken the risk of public transport instead of having to slave away, having to put up with hours of walking and no rest. This was worst in almost every possible way. Before she reached Black City, surely she'd die here...

No, she didn't want to die, not here, not now!

Jia pushed herself off the tree and pressed onwards to see the faint outline of Toboe's back despite the fact that her feet felt like they were burning. She really didn't want to think this, but good for Toboe, for always being the last one...it meant she would at least be able to find them... Finally, she arrived at the foot of a mountain and joined the rest of the group.

"Jia, there you are!" Toboe exclaimed, "I was worried."

Although she wasn't really, she said "_I'm fine_," through wheezes and heavy, noisy gasps. This journey would really be the death of her, and she'd only just begun. This wasn't good at all. "Where are you guys going next?"

The answer came when Kiba leapt off and up, landing on a rock high, high above the ground. "Come on!" He said, and the rest of the wolves began to follow in his tracks, scaling the mountain through well-timed jumps.

"You're kidding me, right? You guys are crazy!" Jia squawked, before she rolled her sleeves hastily and grabbed onto a jutting slab of rock of the mountain. "...Okay, I can do this. I can do this. I-I can do this!" She hoisted one leg up to gain some footing and let her foot on one hold, and kicked at it a little. It was secure. She then lifted her other leg up so both her feet were now on the hold. Good, she hadn't fallen or hurt herself yet. Good...without further delay, she then proceeded to climb the mountain, albeit at an extremely slow pace. "Don't look down...don't look down..." She chanted to herself quietly. Jia managed to climb up to a considerable height before she decided to take a quick breather, clutching with shaking hands at a piece of the cliff. "Okay, whatever you do, Jia, don't look down." She murmured to herself, before she looked down.

She was very high up.

"Uwaaaghhh! Why did I just do that?! I'm an idiot! I'm an idiot!" She wailed, and she whimpered loudly before meekly glancing up; she still had a very long way until she reached the top...Toboe and Hige and the others were already so far ahead. "Okay, okay, calm down...you're almost there...-gulp-"

She lifted her foot to what she thought was a secure rock until it suddenly crumbled under her and gave way, and immediately, she lost her grip and began to fall backwards. She screamed as she plummeted, but her grappling fingers managed to claw at a rock and she abruptly came to a grinding halt, dangling in mid-air. She yelped, and almost immediately, she could see a blurry figure coming to her aid.

"Whatever you do, don't let go." It was Tsume, who landed shortly on a stiff rock and held his hand out; he reached over to grab her by the shoulder; however, a searing sharp pain ripped through her.

"Aa.._aaarrrghh_!" came her scrambled cry. She bit down on her lip as he lifted her up and on the rock beside him; once she was back on her feet she was swaying slightly. Although she previously saw that he had been scaling the mountain at a pace that matched Kiba's, and that he should have been a far greater distance than she was...he had _returned_ to save her? And in seconds, nonetheless? Suddenly, she could feel something wet and warm crawling down her shoulder (from where he had grabbed) and a dark red stain appeared on one side of her army-green parka. Blood. She was bleeding. She didn't understand; she'd seen him seize her but where his hand should've been it felt as though knives had sunk into her flesh. She pulled at the collar and at her shirt down to an extent to reveal little marks that formed a semi-circle on her flesh which looked a lot like bite marks. Tsume watched her with a slight frown, and she finally tore her eyes away from the wound, and looked up at him.

"Is this...is this what happened to Gehl?" She asked quietly.

"...You should try to stop the bleeding." He merely said. She nodded meekly, then went into her rucksack to bring out her scarf, which she'd used to wrap around the wound. Once she was done, Jia stared at Tsume expectantly before a voice called to them.

"Hey, what's going on down there? What's the hold up?" Hige was yelling.

"We're coming." Tsume snapped at him, before he turned to her. "Let's go."

Again, she nodded wordlessly.

"Hold on." He grumbled, as though saving her had been a burden on his behalf. He said that to her before, too. When she wasn't holding on as he asked, he gritted his teeth, "What part of 'hold on' do you not understand?!"

Abruptly she clung onto the back of his leather jacket in silent obedience. Her fingers still hurt before from her that fall which would've killed her, but she said nothing about it.

"You gotta hold on a lot more than that or else you'll fall and die."

_Thanks for the reality check_, she thought, before she gave him a funny look. "What are you doing anyway?"

"You want to be left behind?"

"No..."

"Then be quiet and do as I say."

"But why are you – "

"Don't get comfortable. I'm not gonna be doing this all the time." He replied, "Now are you holding on to me or what? Hurry up!"

"O-okay!" She hastily wrapped her arms around him. It felt weird. Out of all the people, no, wolves, Tsume was perhaps the last one she thought would save her as well as offer to lend her a hand. She squeaked as he leapt up from rock to rock and finally landed on a flat surface, now on par with Kiba, Toboe and Hige, although seeing the girl hanging on his back made everyone stare at him in stunned silence.

"Shut up." Tsume began, but Hige merely grinned at him while Toboe was looking at the two, clearly astounded (but also a little relieved).

"Hey, I wasn't going to say anything." Hige replied, and his grin stretched even wider.

Tsume turned away and grabbed hold of one of edges of a rock, before he hoisted himself up. Jia was holding onto him tightly. Maybe a little too tightly. He threw a quick glance over his shoulder to see that she had now squeezed her eyes shut. She was scared again. He rather liked it when she was scared because she was less annoying. Her weight didn't bother him much at all, either.

They continued climbing until Hige sniffed the air, "The scent is faint, but it's up there."

"Why the hell are you so worked up?" Tsume growled at Kiba, who was climbing the fastest to reach the top.

Hige added, "Aw man...it's got the stink of a Noble mixed in there, too."

"A Noble?"

Meanwhile, Toboe yelled out, "Hey, Kiba! ...I got this fluttery feeling in my chest. Is that what you meant?"

The leader nodded. "Let's go."

Eventually, after a brief climb (although to Jia it felt like forever), they arrived at the summit of the mountain to find themselves in another forest, although the trees in this dense woodland were a little different, maybe it was because they bore no leaves and looked positively dead. The air was also a little tighter and harder to breathe; Jia believed this was because they were too far up. Before Tsume could tell her to, Jia let go of him once they arrived on flat, safe ground. "Thank you." She murmured, as she checked her shoulder again. The bleeding had stopped. Thankfully the bite was not a deep bite and was just a graze on the skin. It wouldn't get infected at this rate, and it would heal soon, too. Meanwhile, Kiba began to move forwards again. He really was relentless. Tsume merely returned her thanks with an emotionless gaze before turning away to follow the alpha.

As they continued their walk, Toboe's cheeks were reddening, "...I don't know why...but my heart is pounding, and I feel all warm and tingly inside." He uttered.

Hige was also affected too, although his cheeks weren't as red as Toboe's, but he did have a dreamy sort-of look on his face. "Haaah, this is that cool feeling you get before pouncing on a pretty girl."

Tsume gazed at him with a tight-lipped frown while Jia thought, with an eyebrow raised, _What the heck goes through that guy's mind?_

"Don't let your guard down." Tsume then said, "...But there's a shiver up my spine too."

Jia glanced at Tsume next. She hadn't thought someone like him would say something like that.

Ever.  
Seriously.

She held in a snigger, and snorted.

Immediately, Tsume whipped round to her sharpish. "You got something to say?"

"N-no."

Finally, their walk concluded when a large, seemingly man-made lake loomed into view. Toboe gasped, and the rest of the wolves stopped. In front of them, was a long stretch of grassland covered in white flowers. Jia stared wide-eyed in awe, as she had never seen flowers such as these before, nor had she seen so many flowers bloom in one place before either. The sight was enough to bring a tear to her eye. She had never seen anything so beautiful before in her entire life...

However, Hige brought her to reality when he croaked out, "...It's her...it's really her..."

Jia squinted her eyes and further ahead, she saw a lone figure in the middle of the lake with their toes dipping in the clear water, perched on one of the rocks. A girl. It was a girl. A girl with short pink hair, adorned in a...well, in a very strange outfit...but that was not it. The girl looked up, and the first thing Jia noticed were the girl's eerie red eyes.

"My heart just skipped a beat..." Toboe murmured, while Jia gawped on helplessly.

"Who is that?" She then said, and at the same time, Tsume had said the exact same words as she did. They shot each other a repulsed look before turning away from each other just as Kiba began walking forwards.

"Hold on." Tsume said, but Kiba did not listen. They watched Kiba move closer and closer to the girl in the lake. She was just standing there...waiting, just waiting... as though she had anticipated their arrival.

Kiba's mouth moved. "Cheza." He said softly. In response, the girl smiled, and she reached out for him. He closed his eyes, as he felt her touch on him, her hands brushing through his fur. His long search had finally came to an end. The Flower Maiden was here, and they had found her. She went on her knees, and they embraced.

"We meet at last."

Hige, Toboe, Tsume and Jia watched the spectacle in silent awe. Then, Jia rubbed at her eyes, as for a split second, she thought she had seen a brilliant white wolf. But when she finished rubbing her eyes, she could just see Kiba. And she didn't see Tsume giving a sideways glance to her from the corner of his eyes.

Immediately, there was a hubbub of voices. "Aww...I wanna be held like that..." Toboe said dreamily, as he watched the pair in the lake.

"Don't worry, Toboe, you'll meet a girl too one day." Jia said, which earned her a dirty look from Tsume. She noticed and swerved her eyes over towards his direction. "What?"

"Stop filling his head with crap." He retorted.

"It's not crap; it's the truth. One day, you will all meet nice girls."

"This is stupid. You're stupid."

"Just stop it, both of you; you're really ruining the moment." Hige snapped at them, before he turned away to face Kiba and the girl again to watch them with a wistful smile.

"Who is she?"

"Can that really be...?"

"Yeah...that's her." Hige said cheerfully, "That's the Flower Maiden."


End file.
